Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
6.10 Process Structural Realism
17
Some philosophic systems (e.g., Aristotle
s) consider objects that retain their
'
)
18
as fundamental, others (e.g., Whitehead
identity through time (
s)
deny that such coherences are so basic but still consider them important:
“The Universe achieves its values by reason of its coordination into societies of
societies, and societies of societies of societies” (Whitehead
1967
, 206). Recent
progress in physical chemistry has identified new modes of dynamic coherence
(which occur in far-from equilibrium open systems) that are critically important in
many areas of science—and have shown how those integrations exemplify and
extend current theory (Kondepudi and Prigogine
1998
). This major advance is not
yet appreciated by philosophers—in part at least because such coherences do not
easily fit into prevailing categorial schemes.
The world consists
19
of individuals that are composed of less-extensive compo-
nents
and also
are parts of more-extensive
20
coherences. With appropriate tech-
nology, any item can be analyzed to yield stable materials—however those stable
products of analysis need not have been components of the analyzed individual.
21
Similarly, It is possible to partition molecular electron-density distributions into
atomic constituents (Bader
2011
), but those hypothetical pieces are not the same as
corresponding uncombined atoms would be (if such could be prepared).
Some philosophers hold that objects are nothing but aggregates (mereological
sums) of their components. William Wimsatt (
2006
) carefully considered condi-
tions under which such simple aggregativity may obtain—and found that those
conditions are rarely fulfilled. Mereological summation does not apply when the
functioning of two or more components either reinforce or oppose each other—but
interactions of quarks in hadrons, hadrons in atomic nuclei, and electrons in atoms
and molecules are all highly cooperative (as are actions of enzymes in metabolic
networks, genes in organismic reproduction, social animals in hives and colonies,
primates in their various groupings—including human societies). Classical exten-
sional mereology is of vanishingly small relevance to any such examples of
compound individuals. The usual case is that the spatial/temporal persistence of
each object corresponds to a
closure of a network of relationships
among compo-
nents (Earley
2013
).
substances
'
'
'
17
Each emergent coherence corresponds to the closure of one or more networks of relationships—
physical processes that have real consequences (Earley
2014
,
2008
).
18
Chemists use the word
'
substance
'
with a meaning different from the one used in philosophy—
but usually do not notice that difference.
19
The word
is not appropriately used in the Searle quotation with which this paper
begins, but it would be an appropriate modifier for
entirely
'
'
consists
in this sentence.
'
'
20
has both spatial and temporal senses.
21
Chemical analysis of samples of common salt yields metallic sodium and dichlorine (a noxious
green gas)—but those stable materials are not in any sense
Extensive
'
'
components
of salt.
'
'
