Re: Empirics and Life

[Howard Pattee <***>]

At 11:46 PM 1/28/05 +0100, Arno wrote:
> may I offer an idea that may be useful for defining an observable F that 
> corresponds to the defined f (where f is a component of a system closed to 
> efficient causation):
>
> such observable F should appear in at least two roles: as caused outcome 
> and as efficient cause. In order to perceive closure (i.e. to efficient 
> causation), an observer must be capable of combining at least these two 
> percepts.

HP: That sounds reasonable. I know of three other proposed necessary 
condition for life that I believe would conceptually satisfy your condition 
for "closed to efficient causation":

Autopoeisis. See http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/AUTOPOIESIS.html

Semantic Closure. See http://www.ws.binghamton.edu/pattee/sem_clos.html

Syntactic Autonomy. See http://informatics.indiana.edu/rocha/sa.html

As I said to Tim, I am not sure what Rosen meant. He apparently expressed 
his closure condition very formally so it is not clear how it is to be 
interpreted conceptually (encoded). The idea of efficient causation as what 
causes the "action" is clearly not a formal concept but a more physical 
concept like forces, but forces in physics come with many connotations.

Howard