|
6534
|
One location may contain molecules, a metal strip, a key, an opener of doors, and a human tragedy
[Lycan]
|
|
Full Idea:
One space-time slice may be occupied by a collection of molecules, a metal strip, a key, an allower of entry to hotel rooms, a facilitator of adultery, and a destroyer souls.
|
|
From:
William Lycan (Consciousness [1987], 4.3)
|
|
A reaction:
Desdemona's handkerchief is a nice example. This sort of remark seems to be felt by some philosophers to be heartless wickedness, and yet it so screamingly self-evident that it is impossible to deny.
|
|
5500
|
Biologists see many organic levels, 'abstract' if seen from below, 'structural' if seen from above
[Lycan]
|
|
Full Idea:
Biologists don't split living things into a 'structural' level and an 'abstract' level; ..rather, they are organised at many levels, each level 'abstract' with respect to those beneath it, but 'structural' as it realises those levels above it.
|
|
From:
William Lycan (Introduction - Ontology [1999], p.9)
|
|
A reaction:
This is a very helpful distinction. Compare Idea 4601. It seems to fit well with the 'homuncular' picture of a hierarchical mind, and explains why there are so many levels of description available for mental life.
|
|
7003
|
There are levels of organisation, complexity, description and explanation, but not of reality
[Heil]
|
|
Full Idea:
We should accept levels of organisation, levels of complexity, levels of description, and levels of explanation, but not the levels of reality favoured by many anti-reductionists. The world is then ontologically, but not analytically, reductive.
|
|
From:
John Heil (From an Ontological Point of View [2003], Intro)
|
|
A reaction:
This sounds right to me. The crunch questions seem to be whether the boundaries at higher levels of organisation exist lower down, and whether the causal laws of the higher levels can be translated without remainder into lower level laws.
|