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Interesting analogies...

One of the aspects of information transfer that always bothered Robert Rosen was the closed, specialized nature of most professions which limited or prohibited cross-pollination between them. This includes education-- how we structure our education systems-- plus such things as scientific publications, conferences, professional organizations, university inter-departmental communication, etc. He felt that multi-disciplinary cross-pollination would allow for enormous breakthroughs in just about every field so involved, because of the fact that there are entailment patterns which consistently appear/repeat in multiple settings and levels (for instance; the fact that too simplistic a model used in a decision-making process invariably leads to widespread side-effects). Some fields have dealt far more constructively than others with the multiple aspects of learning about these patterns and therefore with generating useful applications and solving problems related to interaction with these patterns. But there's no way for any other groups to connect with that information unless they have some means for access. So there is a lot of re-invention of the wheel, so to speak (and some of those wheels aren't round).

I've had an example of this phenomenon, yesterday morning. In a private email, there was a comment that a particular legal term seemed to have some application to Aristotelian analysis. The term was "proximate cause". So I researched it (part of the information at one of those links is copied in at the bottom of this message) and in legalese, proximate cause means the cause closest to the effect, which has the primary impact on the effect. However, it turns out that there are many other fields using this term and there were numerous links to follow for further information on them. Among the links I followed was one which led to chemistry websites, which spoke of "proximate analysis" vs. "ultimate analysis"... In chemistry, ultimate analysis is the archetypal "reductionist" approach; a breakdown of a given material into the most basic particles of which it was composed. In contrast, proximate analysis, while still somewhat reductionist in approach, uses the approach in a far more intelligent way: proximate analysis searches for the most recent, causally active ingredients of that given material, based on the the relation of the causal impact of those ingredients to the nature/properties of the given material. So, in proximate analysis of "salt water" (where salt = sodium chloride) we would end up with salt and water whereas in ultimate analysis of the same material we would end up with hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, and chlorine.

This struck me like a little bolt of lightning. First of all, I'm surprised (although pleased) that the field of chemistry has incorporated this distinction into their modus operandi-- chemists could sometimes be among the most reductionistic folk my father ever had to deal with (he also joked, in a thick German accent, that "some of my best friends are chemists". A twist on a line from Stalag 17?) But, he actually had chemists tell him that "life is reducible, ultimately, to chemistry"! Physicists might come back with the retort that "chemistry is reducible to properties of atoms." Wars have been generated out of less than this. The problem is they both have a grain of truth to cling to and yet if they think that truth is all they need to understand their respective fields, they are both wrong. Where they see differences that are certainly observable; my father was looking at equally "real" similarities-- similarities that were/are in coexistence with the differences: In both cases, the entailments are relational.

It's true that chemistry doesn't apply-- doesn't even come into play-- with atoms except when atoms interact with one another or with us in lab experiments. However, the operative word is "interact" and in any interaction, the relations of their interaction specify the effects. By the same token, atoms don't even exist as atoms unless their constituent particles are organized together in a particular way such that they all constantly interact and balance one another as a cohesive "system." Thus, it is the entire organization (inclusive of all relations) which collectively generates the behavior of the "atom".

Secondly; I'm amazed that these two types of analysis have been in existence in the field of chemistry for however long (?)... and no one has investigated the significance of the fact that there is a huge difference between them. They're talking about causality, dammit! In order to determine what level of interaction in a causal chain is "proximate," it seems to me that one has to examine relational aspects in a big way and integrate them with the whole approach. The aspect they're after with proximate analysis is that which has the most direct causal impact-- (and the word "direct" can refer to temporal elements as well as other relational interactions). So, returning to the salt-water example, if we want to know proximate cause for salt water, we want to know why this water is the way it is, compared to pure water. The only causal impact that we're interested in is that which comes AFTER whatever it is that makes pure water the way IT is. So we isolate sodium chloride and, while we may be curious about what the compound is created out of, what we really want to know is what gives salt water its qualities different from pure water. So we would be reducing no further than the properties of the constituent ingredients which shed the most light on this.

In biological investigation of living organisms, this approach would have long ago shown that there is no material proximate cause of "life" to break down to. Therefore, the conclusion has to be that the proximate cause of life is not material. Additionally, the realization that reductionist techniques would not yield answers in this area of investigation of living systems would also have to be concluded. There is no other scientific conclusion to make. And that's the thing that zapped my attention; this clear recognition, in the field of Chemistry, of a limit on the usefulness of reduction and the creation of "work-arounds" which not only deal effectively with the nature of the problem but are also beyond reproach as "scientific." I think if they really took a look at what they've been doing in "proximate analysis", and followed the logic to find the answer to "why is this necessary?".... they would have arrived at the place my father found, a long time ago.

The machine metaphor would have been discarded, because it asserts that reductionism can yield all we need to know about a system. But this aspect of the foundations of current science is not only still here, it's creating terrible side effects in every single field and it's blocking attempts to figure out why. Meanwhile, all this time, the field of Chemistry has recognized this limit to reductionism as a scientific approach and incorporated relational considerations into their practices. Relational discernment has to be used for assessing causal impact, in order to make decisions such as the "epistemic cut". Ultimately, they've had to assess the effects, not the material parts/particles.

This is a big deal, because it's perhaps one perfect example for illustrating the very principles of relational causality that my father worked so hard to elucidate, and this example already exists within accepted science.

Judith


Definition of "Proximate"
Copied from: http://dict.die.net/proximate/
Source: WordNet (r) 1.7
proximate
adj 1: closest in degree or order (space or time) especially in a
chain of causes and effects; "news of his proximate
arrival"; "interest in proximate rather than ultimate
goals" [ant: ultimate]
2: very close in space or time; "proximate words"; "proximate
houses"


Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Proximate \Prox"i*mate\, a. [L. proximatus, p. p. of proximare
to come near, to approach, fr. proximus the nearest, nest,
superl. of propior nearer, and prope, adv., near.]
Nearest; next immediately preceding or following. ``Proximate
ancestors.'' --J. S. Harford.

The proximate natural causes of it [the deluge]. --T.
Burnet.

Proximate analysis (Chem.), an analysis which determines
the proximate principles of any substance, as contrasted
with an ultimate analysis.

Proximate cause.
(a) A cause which immediately precedes and produces the
effect, as distinguished from the remote, mediate, or
predisposing cause. --I. Watts.
(b) That which in ordinary natural sequence produces a
specific result, no independent disturbing agencies
intervening.

Proximate principle (Physiol. Chem.), one of a class of
bodies existing ready formed in animal and vegetable
tissues, and separable by chemical analysis, as albumin,
sugar, collagen, fat, etc.

Syn: Nearest; next; closest; immediate; direct.

Analysis \A*nal"y*sis\, n.; pl. Analyses. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to
unloose, to dissolve, to resolve into its elements; ? up + ?
to loose. See Loose.]
1. A resolution of anything, whether an object of the senses
or of the intellect, into its constituent or original
elements; an examination of the component parts of a
subject, each separately, as the words which compose a
sentence, the tones of a tune, or the simple propositions
which enter into an argument. It is opposed to
synthesis.

2. (Chem.) The separation of a compound substance, by
chemical processes, into its constituents, with a view to
ascertain either (a) what elements it contains, or (b) how
much of each element is present. The former is called
qualitative, and the latter quantitative analysis.

3. (Logic) The tracing of things to their source, and the
resolving of knowledge into its original principles.

4. (Math.) The resolving of problems by reducing the
conditions that are in them to equations.

5.
(a) A syllabus, or table of the principal heads of a
discourse, disposed in their natural order.
(b) A brief, methodical illustration of the principles of
a science. In this sense it is nearly synonymous with
synopsis.

6. (Nat. Hist.) The process of ascertaining the name of a
species, or its place in a system of classification, by
means of an analytical table or key.

Ultimate, Proximate, Qualitative, Quantitative, and
Volumetric analysis. (Chem.) See under Ultimate,
Proximate, Qualitative, etc.


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