445 lines
34 KiB
HTML
445 lines
34 KiB
HTML
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<title>Structural global regularities</title>
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<meta name="author" content="Amr Gharbeia">
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<body lang="en-GB" text="#99ccff" link="#0000ff" dir="ltr" style="background: transparent">
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font color="#993366"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>S<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdkC23" align="right" hspace="5" width="66" height="21" border="0">tructural
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global regularities. </b></font></font>Spatial and material causation
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are the most direct ways that space and matter impose regularities on
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change in whole regions over time. But they are not the only ways,
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because the forms of matter that explain the truth of the basic laws
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of physics are not the only kinds of substances that can coincide
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with space. The nature of matter also makes non-basic, or derivative
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substances possible, and they can work together with space as
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ontological causes to generate global regularities. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Though
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everything that coincides with space is made of matter, matter is
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capable of being organized into more complex material substances that
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move around in space and interact as units with other bits of matter,
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and the wholeness of space also requires their motion and interaction
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to add up in space over time. They are more complex ontological
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causes, and they add up in space over time to more complex
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regularities about the change that takes place in entire regions. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">These more
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complex ontological causes are “derivative substances” (or
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“derivative ontological causes”) because they are constituted by
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the basic ontological causes, matter and space. Though they can
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endure through time like basic substances, they can also come into
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existence and go out of existence as time passes. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">These more
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complex kinds of substances include not only material objects with
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unchanging geometrical structures, such as ordinary composite
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objects, from cups to automobiles, but also a more complex,
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temporally structured kind of process that is based on such material
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structures. The first is discussed in this chapter, and the second
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will be taken up in <font face="Arial, sans-serif">Reproductive
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global regularities.</font></font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">In both
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cases, however, the derivative substances are ontological causes of
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global regularities, because they work together with space to cause
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change to be regular in entire regions by their continuous existence
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through time as (derivative) substances that coincide with some part
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of space or other in the region. Though the wholeness of space is
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what requires motion and interaction to add up in space over time,
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how their motion and interaction adds up in space over time depends
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on their natures as (derivative) substances as well as the structure
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of space. And as we shall see, they add up to complex global
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regularities about change. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif">Material
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Structures.</font> Since material structures are just material
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objects with relatively stable geometrical structures, most ordinary
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objects are examples of them. They have geometrical structures that
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do not change in relatively wide ranges of interactions because they
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are byproduct of certain cases of the tendency of potential energy to
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become kinetic (one of the two material global regularities). Thus,
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they continue to exist in the region even when entropy is maximum.
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Though as we shall see, material structures can be constructed by
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machines using free energy to do work, that is just a more complex
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example of the structural global regularities to be explained. And
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the existence of material structures does not depend on such
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machines, because there are material structures that form naturally. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The best
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examples of such naturally forming structures involve the
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electromagnetic forces described by quantum field theory. It account
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for the formation of atoms (from nuclei and electrons), molecules
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(from atoms), and crystals, rocks and other natural material objects
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(from molecules). But similar explanations hold for the formation of
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the nuclei of atoms. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Material
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structures come to exist naturally because of the attractive forces
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that simpler material objects exert on one another. The exertion of
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attractive forces across space is a form of potential energy that can
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draw material objects together and bind them into relationships with
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one another that are stable and do not change. The stability of such
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composite objects comes from the parts giving up potential energy as
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kinetic energy (or radiation) when they form themselves into a unit,
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because, once united, their bonds to one another cannot be broken,
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unless subsequent interactions supply enough energy in the right form
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to make up for the energy that was lost forming the bonds. The
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improbability of that happening is, as we have seen, what causes the
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tendency to kinetic energy. (Kinetic matter and photons lack the
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inherent geometrical structure of potential energy, and thus, almost
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anything that happens to such matter will make it impossible for it
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to regain its initial geometrical structure as potential energy). But
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the quantum nature of the interactions helps account for their
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stability, because that means the objects can be freed from their
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embrace with one another only when enough energy is supplied by a
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single interaction (as illustrated by the photo-electric effect).
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Thus, such composite objects have geometrical structures that do not
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change even though they are interacting with other objects (as long
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as the energy of those interactions is not too great). </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Thought
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material structures may seem to override the tendency to randomness,
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they are just byproducts of the tendency toward kinetic energy, the
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other global regularity involved in the second law of thermodynamics.
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</font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Material
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structures may seem to override the tendency toward randomness in two
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ways. Instead of interacting by elastic collision, the parts of
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composite objects exert forces that bind them to one another, and
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thus, instead of being spread out evenly in space, material objects
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are clustered together in the same local area. And instead of winding
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up with momentums in every which direction, the parts of such
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structures all have much the same direction, like a wind with fixed
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parts. In other words, instead of being a gas or liquid, they are a
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solid state of matter, which moves and interacts as a whole.<sup><a class="sdendnoteanc" name="sdendnote1anc" href="#sdendnote1sym"><sup>i</sup></a></sup></font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">But instead
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of overriding the tendency to randomness, they exemplify the other
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material global regularity that is covered by the second law of
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thermodynamics. The existence of material structures is part of the
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price that is paid to have kinetic energy that can become randomized
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as evenly distributed heat. It is the loss of potential energy (which
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is actually a loss of rest mass) that binds the parts into stable
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geometrical structures. Their formation is part of the process of
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free energy becoming entropy. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Composite
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material objects with unchanging geometrical structures are the
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derivative ontological causes that will be called “material
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structures” or “structural causes”. But it should be noted that
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not all objects that form naturally as byproducts of the tendency of
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potential energy to become kinetic energy are material structures,
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and the main exceptions, not surprisingly, result from gravitation. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Stars form
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as a result of gravitation, but these “composite objects” do not
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have unchanging geometrical structures in this sense. Gravitation
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concentrates material objects in certain locations, and though this
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is a deviation from the tendency of rest masses to be distributed
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evenly throughout space, the forces are so great, when enough matter
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is concentrated at some location, that material objects continue to
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move and interact randomly with one another, as a plasma of nuclei
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and electrons (a fourth state of matter, besides solids, liquids and
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gases). This gives stars only the minimal geometrical structure
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required to speak of them as composite objects at all. They
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approximate a sphere, but since there are no unchanging spatial
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relations among particular parts that would give the whole a
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geometrical structure that remains stable as it interacts with other
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objects in space, they are not structural ontological causes. Though
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planets and smaller astronomical bodies do acquire unchanging
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geometrical structures from gravitational attraction, they also
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depend on the parts forming bonds based on electromagnetic forces. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">If
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gravitational acceleration is explained by the acceleration of the
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ether, then the nature of the gravitational force would explain why
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stars are different from objects that depend on other forces.
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Material objects that are clustered simply because of the ether (by
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which they coincide with space) accelerating them towards one another
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do not necessarily form bonds with one another. By contrast, the
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interactions on which other kinds of composite objects are based
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involve either opposite forces of attraction and repulsion canceling
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one another out (as in electromagnetism) or are short range forces
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(as in the weak and strong forces), and they all have a quantum
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nature which helps makes the structures they constitute stable. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">It should
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be noticed, however, that even some composite objects formed by
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forces with a quantum nature lack unchanging geometrical structures.
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For example, water molecules interact by weak electromagnetic forces,
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called “hydrogen bonds”, but when water forms into a drop, the
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molecules continue to move relative to one another as they interact,
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resembling to some extent star-like gravitational objects on a small
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scale.</font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif">R<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdkC24" align="right" hspace="5" width="66" height="29" border="0">eversible
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processes. </font>The existence of material structures depends on the
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specific nature of the matter that helps constitute the actual world,
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and when they exist, the <i>wholeness </i>of the space containing
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them causes their motion and interaction in any region to add up over
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time as regularities about entire regions of space. But since they
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have a geometrical structure, how they add up also depends on the
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<i>structure </i>of space. Though the new global regularity is rather
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simple by itself, it makes all the difference in the world, as we
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shall see, when combined with material global regularities, that is,
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free energy, for that is what constitutes irreversible processes.</font></font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">What
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is regular in the case of reversible processes is not just that the
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geometrical structure of the material object does not change. That is
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a property of the composite object, rather than a property of region
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as a whole. But since its geometrical structure does not change over
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time, there is a geometrical structure about the dynamic processes in
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the region that does not change, and <i>that </i>is a global
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regularity. In other words, material structures contribute to the
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geometrical structure of the region in much the same way that
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potential energy does, by its inherent geometrical structure. The
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difference, of course, is that the material structures do not lose
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their geometrical structure as potential energy tends to do as it
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becomes kinetic. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">As
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long as the composite object’s geometrical structure does not go
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out of existence, it is like a new kind of material substance, which
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is not mentioned by the basic laws of physics. Indeed, the reason
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material structures are ontological causes is that, like space and
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more elementary forms of matter, they exist continuously over time
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like substances. And since change is just an aspect of substances
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enduring through time, material structures cause change to be regular
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by helping constitute the process. As in all ontological
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explanations, that is how the essential natures of substances help
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determine the nature of what is found in the natural world. Material
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structures are unchanging aspects of the substances making up the
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region as time passes. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Material
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structures cause a global regularity, because as they move and
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interact as particular substances in space, their geometrical
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structures help determine, along with the structure of space and the
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other bits of matter in the region, how change occurs as time passes.
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Though everything happens by efficient causation, the motion and
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interaction of material structures with other bits of matter must add
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up over time in space. The kind of global regularity that material
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structures add up to is simple. It is just the existence of the
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material structures in the region moving and interacting with other
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bits of matter. And material structures with different geometrical
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structure impose different regularities on how geometrical structures
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of whole regions change over time. </font></font></font>
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</p>
|
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<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Though
|
||
the wholeness of the space containing all the bits of matter is what
|
||
makes their motion and interaction add up over time, how the motion
|
||
and interaction of material structures adds up over time depends on
|
||
the structure of the space containing them. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">In
|
||
the first place, the uniform structure of space makes it possible for
|
||
composite objects to move without changing the spatial relations
|
||
among their parts. Every local area in space has a geometrical
|
||
structure that can contain any specific kind of geometrical structure
|
||
that composite material objects may have. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Second,
|
||
when such objects do interact, space allows what happens to depend
|
||
not only on the forces that the objects exert on each other (by way
|
||
of the forces exerted by the parts of such geometrical structures),
|
||
but also on how their geometrical structures fit together. This is a
|
||
geometrical aspect about how material objects in the region interact
|
||
with one another that cannot even be simulated by forces. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Material
|
||
structures can, therefore, be said to <i>structure </i>dynamic
|
||
processes. Thus, structural global regularities of are “structured
|
||
dynamic processes”. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Even
|
||
though structural global regularities may be little more than the
|
||
existence of material structures in the region, there is no doubt
|
||
that the existence of such geometrical structures in the region
|
||
imposes a regularity on change in the region. It can be seen in how
|
||
round pegs, but not square pegs, fit into the round holes in a board,
|
||
how rings linked with one another act like a chain, or how molecules
|
||
can be confined in a box. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Consider,
|
||
for example, a box of gas that is part of a larger (closed) region of
|
||
space. Although the molecules are not bound to the box and move
|
||
around independently of it, those on the inside never get outside,
|
||
while the molecules on the outside never get inside. This is because
|
||
the box has a geometrical structure that, together with the structure
|
||
of space, leaves no route for molecules to move from one region to
|
||
the other. The gas molecules are not equally likely to be located in
|
||
every part of the region, and as the box moves around in the region,
|
||
the structure about the distribution of matter in the region changes
|
||
in a regular way, because the otherwise randomly moving molecules
|
||
always move around inside the box. The dynamic process taking place
|
||
in that region has, therefore, a geometrical structure that does not
|
||
change over time. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">The
|
||
part-whole relationship in the box-of-gas example suggests a more
|
||
general point about material structures and the global regularities
|
||
they and space generate: the unchanging geometrical structure of a
|
||
composite object as a whole constrains the motion and interactions of
|
||
its parts, and that generates (regular) behavior in the object as a
|
||
whole. This is, perhaps, obvious in complex machinery, but consider a
|
||
simple example, two rings linked together. The rings can move and
|
||
interact independently of one another to some extent, but their
|
||
locations are not random, because they can move only within limits
|
||
which are imposed by the geometrical structure of the object as a
|
||
whole. This further geometrical structure about what happens to the
|
||
rings is a kind of global regularity about change over time that
|
||
might well be called the “behavior” of the object as a whole. The
|
||
behavior of chains of many such linked rings is quite useful in
|
||
communicating forces from one place to another. The notion that the
|
||
whole controls the part is sometimes thought to entail a holism that
|
||
is incompatible with materialistic reductionism, but when we
|
||
recognize that the substances constituting such objects include space
|
||
as well as matter, a regular behavior on the part of the whole is
|
||
just what is expected. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Structural
|
||
causation introduces a complication into the ontological explanations
|
||
of spatiomaterialism, because material structures are derivative
|
||
ontological causes. In order to be ontological causes of the global
|
||
regularity about change, they must endure through the whole period.
|
||
But over longer periods of time, material structures do come into
|
||
existence and go out of existence. In speaking of them as ontological
|
||
causes, we are treating them like substances, which have essential
|
||
natures, that is, properties that hold at each moment of their
|
||
existence and help determine how contingent properties come and go
|
||
over time. But since they are derivative ontological causes, we must
|
||
take into account their “generation” and “corruption”, much
|
||
as Aristotle did in explaining his very different kinds of substances
|
||
with essential forms. They are analogous to the various,
|
||
interconvertible forms of matter we distinguished in order to explain
|
||
the basic laws of physics ontologically, except that we can explain
|
||
the generation and corruption of material structures from simpler
|
||
substances by their motion and interaction in space according to the
|
||
basic laws of physics. However, the advantages of introducing this
|
||
complication far outweigh the disadvantages. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Many
|
||
puzzles are cleared up by recognizing that material structures are
|
||
ontological causes. </font></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US">It
|
||
settles, for example, a question about the criterion for the identity
|
||
of ordinary objects over time that arises for epistemological
|
||
philosophers. Material objects are commonly classified by their
|
||
geometrical structures, and some epistemological philosophers (</span></font></font><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/ObjText/#Hirsh82"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US"><u>Hirsh</u></span></font></font></a><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US">
|
||
1982, p. 134) rely on it so heavily that they are tempted to believe
|
||
that simply having the same kind of geometrical structure at a later
|
||
moment would be sufficient for its identity—even if the object were
|
||
to vanish from one location at one moment and were to appear
|
||
somewhere else the next. That is not a case we need to worry about,
|
||
since it is not even possible according to our ontology. But the
|
||
recognition of material structures as ontological causes can solve
|
||
puzzles about identity posed by epistemologists who pit having the
|
||
same geometrical structure against spatio-temporal continuity. </span></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/ObjText/#Hirsh82"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US"><u>Nozick</u></span></font></font></a><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US">
|
||
(1981, p. 29ff), for example, considers the case of Theseus’ ship,
|
||
which is rebuilt, plank by plank, over a period of time. One would
|
||
ordinarily claim that what results from the rebuilding is the same
|
||
ship, although none of the parts is the same. But Nozick poses a
|
||
further question by supposing that each of the parts of the original
|
||
ship is saved and later used to reassemble the original ship. He
|
||
asks, which later ship is identical to the original ship. Nozick’s
|
||
answer is the “closest continuer theory”, which has intuition
|
||
deciding in each case (and for each person) which is closest. But if
|
||
we recognize how global regularities depend on ontological causes, it
|
||
is clear which ship is identical to the original ship, because only
|
||
one of them has an unchanging geometrical structure that can cause
|
||
change to be regular by existing continuously over all that time as a
|
||
substance. Its role as an ontological cause determines its identity
|
||
over time. </span></font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
||
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
|
||
recognition of global regularities solves various problems about the
|
||
irreducibility of less general laws in science to the laws of
|
||
physics, as we shall see in <font face="Arial, sans-serif">Epistemological
|
||
philosophy of causation</font>. The general form of the problem can
|
||
be seen in the case of structural global regularities. Science tends
|
||
to overlook this explanatory role of material structures, because it
|
||
its looking for efficient causes, not ontological causes. The only
|
||
relevant factors involved in efficient-cause explanations, besides
|
||
the laws of physics (and mathematical theorems), are initial and
|
||
boundary conditions. A structural cause is not just an initial
|
||
condition (although it can be inferred from initial conditions
|
||
together with the relevant laws of physics), because it causes by its
|
||
continuous existence over the whole period of time that the global
|
||
regularly occurs. To be sure, boundary conditions also cause by
|
||
persisting through the period of the regularity. But structural
|
||
ontological causes are not boundary conditions, for they are not just
|
||
a condition about the system’s limits in space (how it is related
|
||
to or isolated from the rest of the world). Thus, structural
|
||
ontological causes tend to fall through the cracks. That is not to
|
||
say that they are ignored. It is rather they are implicit in
|
||
efficient causes that are recognized. The familiar
|
||
deductive-nomological model of explanation has no way to acknowledge
|
||
the distinctive kind of role that material structures play as
|
||
ontological causes of global regularities. </font></font>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="sdendnote1">
|
||
<p lang="en-US" class="sdendnote-western" style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.25cm">
|
||
<a class="sdendnotesym" name="sdendnote1sym" href="#sdendnote1anc">i</a><span lang="en-US">
|
||
This other aspect of the tendency of potential energy to become
|
||
kinetic energy is what </span><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/ObjText/#Prigogine" target="_self"><font color="#0000ff"><span lang="en-US"><u>Prigogine</u></span></font></a><span lang="en-US">
|
||
(1980) and </span><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/ObjText/#Prigogine"><font color="#0000ff"><span lang="en-US"><u>Kauffman</u></span></font></a><span lang="en-US">
|
||
(1993, 1995) and their followers are think of as the mysterious
|
||
phenomenon of “self-forming” or “self-organizing” objects.
|
||
See the discussion of the </span><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><span lang="en-US">Second
|
||
law of thermodynamics </span></font><span lang="en-US">in
|
||
</span><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><span lang="en-US">Epistemological
|
||
philosophy of causation</span></font><span lang="en-US">.</span></p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html> |