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John M. wrote:
'entailment' is still my old foe: I figure
'entail' is as forming the 'tail' of something, as in e.g. a consequence,
originational result, a needed initiator to the entailed. Then again in my
totally deterministic world (as far as the origination of things goes, not the
outcome (as in: future - and that is a special topic) negates anything NOT to be
entailed by origination.
So your question startled
me:
Where do the entailments come from, in your
respective views of evolution as a process of change?
as: entailing the change, or entailing
further changes? or even: who (what?) orchestrates the origination of the
process?
Entailment, as Robert Rosen used the term, doesn't just refer to
consequences or results (as in the sentence; "This tornado was caused/entailed
by...") but to all the potential consequences as well. All causality
(everything that happens) is entailed, in RR's view, but each system has a
whole collection of entailments which give it all the potential of
what COULD happen. Entailment refers to the systemic "rules"-- as
specified by the organization. We could make a blanket statement and say,
logically, that the organization of the universe provides the set of
entailments for all that is possible in the universe. But individual system
organization takes that potential entailment and further sculpts it into a
systemic entailment pattern (which is expressed via causality and that's
what we observe). We derive all of our capability, as a species, from our
entailments.
The impact of relations on causality are the reason why this
is true. No interaction can be described unless the relation by which the
interaction takes place is also described. The nature of that relation is
what specifies the entailments and that, in turn, determines the outcome
(causality). For example, if you're standing in a big puddle of gasoline
and you light a match, dropping it into the puddle; there are a set of
entailments which are likely to cause extreme bodily injury or death to
you. However, if you are not standing IN the puddle of gasoline, but are some
distance away when you throw a lit match into it, you will experience a
different outcome. Both outcomes are always entailed, but different relations
will govern the interaction differently. Thus, the entailments of what we
observe happening in the universe (causality) are only a small subset of the
total entailments any system possesses.
Relational interaction is what it's all about. Each interaction is
entailed and also entails-- it goes both ways. So, sodium and chlorine have
the entailment to form a molecular bond which, if it happens, creates
a compound; sodium chloride (salt). Salt has entirely different properties from
either sodium or chlorine, and that's because it has different entailments. It's
a different system, with different organization than either of the elements from
which it is created. The entailments of salt are specified by that organization,
and can only be understood via that set of relations.
Does this help make it more comprehensible?
Judith |