DesCartes gave us the machine metaphor, the basis for Cartesian Reductionism. This is widely accepted in the biological sciences where organisms are seen as machines by some and special machines at that. He also gave us mind/body duality which is a necessary way to reduce humans to something that is consistent with the machine metaphor. The consequences of large scale accepiance of these ideas over centuries is an interesting quandry for modern science and its teaching. The problem is the apparent conflict between science and religion over the explanation of origins of things. In its simplest form it entails evolution vs creationism and lately, the latter includes Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design proponents actually go so far as to invoke Complex Systems Theory to "support" their position.
Robert Rosen has produced a number of books and papers that put this all in perspective. To summarize, the Cartesian reductionists' view of life necessitates a diety to cut of an infinite regression of causal entailment. This is because machines are always impoverished causually and require outside sources of cause. Rosen, using a mathematical model, prooves conclusively that organisms are distinct from machines in that they are closed networks of cause, needing no outside sources other than their rquirement for exchanges with the environment.
Building on Rosen's model it is also possible to cast the Earth system, Gaia, in the same kind of closed causal system as the organism, lending strength to arguments that Gaia is alive in some important way. Looking at the Earth system as if it were a machine is another example of the harm done by the Cartesian Machine Metaphor.
Sunday, 04 May 2008 04:31 | 
Written by Bob Guyer
