Re: Rosen, Kauffman and compatibility

[Howard Pattee <***>]

Judith,

I think of "closed to efficient causation" as a necessary
condition to answer What is life? It is certainly a principle that
empirically testable scientific models of life must satisfy, but I'm not
convinced it is itself empirically verifiable. I think of it like the
epistemic principles in physics, like the requirement that all
empirically verifiable models (laws) obey invariance 
principles.

To me "closed to efficient causation" is still a very abstract
image that I find hard to associate with observable properties of
organisms. Maybe Tim can help me out here. 

Howard

At 07:23 AM 1/27/05 -0500, you wrote:
> Howard Pattee wrote: I do not yet
> see how the existence of "closure to efficient causation" can
> be empirically decided.
>
> How is "life" empirically decided? Scientifically, I mean.
>  
> Judith
>