Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Notebooks 1914-1916' and 'Daniel Dennett on himself'

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2 ideas

27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 3. Parts of Time / a. Beginning of time
Almost everyone except Plato thinks that time could not have been generated [Plato, by Aristotle]
     Full Idea: With a single exception (Plato) everyone agrees about time - that it is not generated. Democritus says time is an obvious example of something not generated.
     From: report of Plato (works [c.375 BCE]) by Aristotle - Physics 251b14
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 1. Biology
Biology is a type of engineering, not a search for laws of nature [Dennett]
     Full Idea: Biology is not a science like physics, in which one should strive to find 'laws of nature', but a species of engineering.
     From: Daniel C. Dennett (Daniel Dennett on himself [1994], p.239)
     A reaction: Yes. This is also true of chemistry, which has always struck me as minitiarised car mechanics.