Foundations of Science 15 (4):357-367 (2010)
Abstract |
I distinguish Nature from the World. I also distinguish development from evolution. Development is progressive change and can be modeled as part of Nature, using a specification hierarchy. I have proposed a ‘canonical developmental trajectory’ of dissipative structures with the stages defined thermodynamically and informationally. I consider some thermodynamic aspects of the Big Bang, leading to a proposal for reviving final cause. This model imposes a ‘hylozooic’ kind of interpretation upon Nature, as all emergent features at higher levels would have been vaguely and episodically present primitively in the lower integrative levels, and were stabilized materially with the developmental emergence of new levels. The specification hierarchy’s form is that of a tree, with its trunk in its lowest level, and so this hierarchy is appropriate for modeling an expanding system like the Universe. It is consistent with this model of differentiation during Big Bang development to view emerging branch tips as having been entrained by multiple finalities because of the top-down integration of the various levels of organization by the higher levels
|
Keywords | Big Bang Causality Development Multiple worlds Nature Specification hierarchy Thermodynamics Vagueness |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1007/s10699-010-9181-z |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Evolution as Entropy: Toward a Unified Theory of Biology.D. R. BROOKS - 1986 - University of Chicago Press.
Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols.B. C. O'Neill - 1971 - Philosophical Quarterly 21 (85):361.
View all 29 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
A Hierarchical Framework for Levels of Reality: Understanding Through Representation. [REVIEW]Stanley N. Salthe - 2009 - Axiomathes 19 (1):87-99.
Floridi’s “Open Problems in Philosophy of Information”, Ten Years Later.Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic & Wolfgang Hofkirchner - 2011 - Information 2 (2):327-359.
Must Complex Systems Theory Be Materialistic?Horace Fairlamb - 2012 - Foundations of Science 17 (1):1-3.
View all 7 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Development: The Missing Link Between Exaptationist and Adaptationist Accounts of Organismal Design.William Michael Brown - 2002 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (4):509-510.
Regaining the Riches of Our Past and New Hope for Our Future.Stanley Salthe - 2002 - World Futures 58 (2 & 3):149 – 157.
Review Article – a System for Analysing Features in Studies Integrating Ecology, Development, and Evolution.J. R. Stone & B. K. Hall - 2006 - Biology and Philosophy 21 (1):25-40.
The Relation Between Language and Theory of Mind in Development and Evolution.Bertram F. Malle - 2002 - In Malle, Bertram F. (2002) the Relation Between Language and Theory of Mind in Development and Evolution. [Book Chapter]. pp. 265-284.
The Organism in Developmental Systems Theory.Thomas Pradeu - 2010 - Biological Theory 5 (3):216-222.
Mind as a Nested Operational Architectonics of the Brain.Andrew A. Fingelkurts & Alexander A. Fingelkurts - 2012 - Physics of Life Reviews 9 (1):49-50.
The Meaning of Life in a Developing Universe.John E. Stewart - 2010 - Foundations of Science 15 (4):395-409.
A Hierarchical Framework for Levels of Reality: Understanding Through Representation. [REVIEW]Stanley N. Salthe - 2009 - Axiomathes 19 (1):87-99.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2010-06-12
Total views
72 ( #140,998 of 2,421,312 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #544,098 of 2,421,312 )
2010-06-12
Total views
72 ( #140,998 of 2,421,312 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #544,098 of 2,421,312 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads