07/25/20

Comments on Armand Maurer’s Essay (2004) “Darwin, Thomists and Secondary Causality” (Part 3)

Section One, Darwin

0027 Darwin justifies his hypothesis on the origin of species to Christians, by contemplating secondary causation. God grants adaptive powers to living creatures, allowing descent with modification.

Does God endow biological creatures with powers more subtle than instrumental and material causality?

The power to be reproductively successful means that, over time, a creature (species) can substantially change.

0028 How?

Something independent of the biological species offers an advantage to exploit or a disadvantage to avoid. This takes place in the eternal now. In each generation, those creatures that have the ability to exploit the advantage or avoid the disadvantage produce more offspring. Over the course of many generations, a species may substantially change, depending on the nature of the advantage or disadvantage.

0029 What word is under contention?

The word is “substance”. One never witnesses an adaptation so radical as to render a plant into an animal or the other way around. Plus, only one genus goes from animal to rational, implying the uniqueness of the human niche.

0030 However, if one fashions a narrower definition of substance, then one places the word in the path of descent with modification.

For example, a common ancestor ends up as two species, wolf and dog. They are substantially different, according to a consensus among biologists. Why? Each population no longer breeds with the other.

Okay, there is debate about that for wolves and dogs, but not between wolves and whales.

0031 There is more to the picture than this scientific criterion.

As species evolve, their particular substance changes over generations. Yet, at any moment in the Earth’s history, biological species appear to be stable, even during rapid ecological change. So, each species is really present only in the eternal now.

Time is required to note trends in biological evolution. So, evolution implies that species must be placed in a different normal context than everyday life. They may be compared to selective breeding of populations over time.

0032 Did Darwin grasp secondary causes in order to place a metaphorical fig leaf over his theory of natural selection?

Descent with modification implies that God (primary cause) endows creatures with powers to exploit advantages and avoid disadvantages (secondary causes) in the environment of evolutionary adaptation (EEA). Creatures do not strive to change over generations. Rather, they strive to survive and reproduce. Adaptation occurs, over many generations, as a consequence of striving in the etermal now.

0033 In order to get an idea how this looks in terms of category-based nested forms, let me conclude that there are two actualities. One actuality virtually situates the other.

Here is a diagram of actuality for a two-level interscope. See requried reading.

0034 In the normal context of natural selection_3b, the situation-level actuality becomes adaptation_2b.

In the normal context of natural selection_3b, the situation-level potential becomes a niche_1b.

A niche_1b is a potential of an actuality independent of the adapting species_2a.

As far as biologists are concerned, the content-level normal context_3aand potential_1a, accounting for the actuality independent of the adapting species_2a may be ignored, except for one difficulty.

There is a chance that the adaptation_2b will alter the actuality independent of the adapting species_2a, as in the case of a beaver building a dam on a fast moving stream. The alteration produces similar results, time and time again. Reproducible results become the actuality independent of the adapting species_2a. This permutation is called “niche construction”.

0035 Here is the diagram of Darwinian evolution.

0036 So far, so good.

Where do primary and secondary causations come in?

Does the situation-level of Darwinian selection compare to the category-based nested form for primary and secondary causation?

0037 Let me start by considering the two actualities.

Adaptation_2b renders as a simple actuality (without Darwin’s normal context_3b and potential_1b), living creature [has powers to] survive and reproduce_2b.

This compares favorably to the idea that secondary causation applies to actuality₂ embedded in the primary causality of a normal context₃ and potential₁. The actuality₂ may be rendered as the dyad, the esse of the thing [has power to cause] certain results₂.

0038 Here is a picture of the match.

0039 Darwin hones in on secondary causes as a way to accept adaptation_2b, as the esse of a living thing [has power to cause] results, including surviving and reproducing.

However, the concept of secondary causation for creatures, already promoted by Aquinas and again, by Suarez, regards the Divine Will_3b and the Divine Presence_1b as presiding in the eternal now, corresponding to the moment when the future becomes the past.

There a difference between “right now” and “over many generations”, just as there is a difference between “living creatures [have the power to] survive and reproduce” and “adaptation”.

0040 The creature’s power associates to the term, “substance”.

One question posed by Thomists to Darwinists, asks, “How can an adaptation, an accidental change, alter the creature’s substance, when accidents cannot add up to a substantial change?”

The answer is, “A creature’s [power] to survive and reproduce operates, over generations, in the normal context of natural selection_3b and with a salient niche_1b. A salient niche_1b is one that offers novel opportunities and disadvantages, so that natural selection_3b is not purely random. Natural selection favors certain accidents over others, leading to substantial change over generations.”

0041 So, what about the following comparison?

0042 The upper nested form applies to the eternal now.

The latter nested form occurs over time.

0043 Other than that, let me compare at face value.

The logic of thirdness is exclusion, alignment and complement. Any normal context₃ will exclude, align with or complement another normal context₃.

Thirty years before the publication of Origin of Species in 7659 U0’, Darwin entertains the idea that biological evolution may be accepted by Christians on the basis of secondary causation. If this is the case, then the Divine Will₃ and natural selection_3b must either align or complement.

0044 After publication, Catholic biologist, St. George Mivart (7622-7700), and American botanist, Asa Gray (7610-7688) address this if-then construct.

0045 Here, I pause and wonder.

Doesn’t the idea of secondary causes, the living creature[ has the power to] survive and reproduce, fit the pattern of declaration and development found in the six days of Creation in Genesis?

God says, “Let the earth bring forth…”, then “the earth brings forth.”

Surely, the declaration goes with normal context₃ and potential₁.

The development associates to actuality₂.

0046 The problem?

The Spirit of the Age of the 7600s proclaims that natural selection_3b excludes the Creator’s Will₃. The niche_1b is solely a material advantage or disadvantage offered by the environment of evolutionary adaptation_2a. No Divine Presence₁ is manifest. Biological evolution is godless, all the way through.

Mivart and Gray are horrified.

Both become staunch critics of Darwinism.

0047 Despite this, Mivart admits that natural selection could be one factor in biological evolution. It cannot be the only factor. After all, natural selection_3b and the niche_1b are external to the adaptatation_2b. There must be something else, something internal, that completes the account of biological evolution.

Today, the ‘something’ that Mivart refers to is genetics. Body development_3b’ completes the account that natural selection_3b starts.

0048 In the normal context of body development_3b, the phenotype_2b emerges from (and situates) the genotype_1b, where the genotype_1b is the potential_1b of the creature’s DNA_2a.

The “Neo-“ of NeoDarwinism has precisely the same relational structure as Darwinism. Thus, a species’ internal DNA_2aparallels an external actuality independent of the adapting species_2a.

Here is how that looks.

0049 I will not discuss the implications of the fact that adaptation_2b and phenotype_2b are independent actualities that apply to the same creature. See Comments on Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight’s Book (2017) Adam and the Genome.

Instead, I will expand the working comparison between primary and secondary causality to NeoDarwinism, as opposed to only Darwinism.

Here is the diagram.

0050 After the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA_2a in the 7750s, influence-peddlers of the modern Zeitgeist work overtime insisting that both natural selection_3b and body development_3b exclude the Divine Will_3b.

They struggle against a crucial insight. The category of firstness, the monadic realm of possibility₁, operates according to the logics of inclusion. It₁ allows contradictions. So, the niche₁ and the genotype₁ do not exclude the Divine Presence₁, the potential underlying the Divine Will₃.

0051 Say what?

Consider the niche_1b.

The niche_1b is the potential of ‘something’ outside the adapting species_2a. Natural selection_3b is potentiated_1b by ‘something’ outside itself_2a. Naturalists must insist that this potential_1b arises solely from material and instrumental causes.

However, less ideologically supine biologists never keep up with the naturalist’s agenda. They routinely evoke final attributes and formal requirements and design. Birds have wings to fly. Fish have fins to swim. Final attributes and formal designs cannot be distilled down to instrumental and material causalities. They cannot be observed and measured. Instead, they are simply obvious to us.

In a way, this seems miraculous.

0052 Similarly, the genotype_1b is the potential of the creature’s DNA_2a. Body development_3b is potentiated_1b by ‘something’ inside itself_2a. Naturalists must claim that this potential_1b arises solely from material and instrumental causes.

But, less ideologically sensitive biologists make statements like, “Such and such gene is responsible for such and such anatomical or physiological feature.”

For example, say a new gene arises from a novel repair of the DNA_2a after a strand break. How does a gamma ray select the exact location to create this fissure that is then repaired in a fashion as to produce a slightly different protein (or genotype_1b)?

Talk about miracles.

0053 Of course, Darwin does not know that genetics is the mechanism of inheritance.

Suarez and Aquinas do not know that creatures evolve over geological time.

0054 Yet, here we are, on the verge of an insight.

Neither the niche_1b nor the genotype_1b fully exclude the Divine Presence₁.

After all, the Divine Presence₁ sustains the actualities of an environment of evolutionary adaptation_2a and DNA_2a.

How can natural selection_3b and body development_3b completely exclude the Divine Will₃?

07/24/20

Comments on Armand Maurer’s Essay (2004) “Darwin, Thomists and Secondary Causality” (Part 4)

Section Four, Maritain

0055 Jacques Maritain (7682-7773 U0’) pops thought bubbles. Sometimes, he succeeds. Sometimes, he does not.

In 7773, he takes a jab at a bubble that still pervades the modern Zeitgeist. Natural selection_3b and body development_3bexclude the Divine Will₃.

Maritain pens an essay. The title is “Towards a Thomistic Idea of Evolution”. The word, “towards”, conveys the tentative character of his argument. He aims to take secondary causality to the… um… next level.

0056 Maritain points out that living beings embody immanent and self-perpetuating activities. Such activities give living beings an active role in evolution. This point reflects a general principle. God gives, to created beings, the dignity of secondary causation, under the guidance of primary causality.

Maritain draws a distinction about the living being’s powers of immanent activity.

0057 First, these powers reside in each individual of a species, even though they govern and perpetuate the entire species.

To me, this sounds like a fusion of the eternal now and the evolutionary eon, allowing a comparison between secondary causality₂ and adaptation_2b.

0058 Second, living beings have a self-regulating power that is subtle. It does not appear on the surface. This power appears to work against entropy. Matter may acquire higher form under the elevating action of God.

To me, this sounds like a fusion of secondary causality₂ with the dynamics underlying the phenotype_2b.

0059 Does Maritain draw on Mivart’s intuition that evolution requires an external and an internal account?

Not really, Maritain and Mivart do not contradict one another. Secondary causality₂ compares to adaptation_2b and phenotype_2b, formulated as dyads.

Here is how that looks.

0060 Maritain ascribes primary causality to God, but not to the exclusion of the secondary agency of created beings.

The two normal contexts_3b for NeoDarwinism complements or aligns with the theological normal context₃ for primary and secondary causes.

Also, the potentials₁ are inclusive, with a very curious twist. God’s Divine Presence sustains the actuality of ‘something’ independent of the adapting species_2a, the environment of evolutionary adaptation, as well as the DNA_2a. God has plenty of room to tinker with biological evolution.

0061 Here is a picture of the comparison.

0062 According to Thomas Aquinas, matter has a potential, or an appetite, for forms of ascending perfection. “Perfection” does not mean “without flaws”. Rather, “perfection” suggests “completion”. Matter and form associate to actuality₂. Perfection adds the normal context₃ and the potential₁.

Is this key to a philosophical understanding of biological evolution?

Maritain spells out the ascending levels, composite bodies, mixed bodies, vegetative bodies and souls, sensitive or animal bodies and souls, and intellectual or human bodies and souls. Matter ascends from content to situation to perspective, on the wings of its own secondary causes, in the normal context of the Divine Will₃ and in the possibilities inherent in the Divine Presence₁.

0063 Certainly, this is not the only way to construct a hierarchy of nested forms. But, it is surely a good one.

Maritain keeps his eyes on the writings of Thomas Aquinas.

0064 Yet, even before his death at a ripe old age, a young, Peirce-enamored Thomist, John Deely (7747-7817 U0’), presents him with a thesis. Later, Deely writes about an interplay between Peirce and Aquinas. Deely discovers that Peirce arrives at the same definition of sign as the Baroque Scholastic, John Poinsot (7389-7444 U0’).

What does this imply?

C. S. Peirce may be regarded as the first in a postmodern neoscholastic tradition.

Peircean formulations, such as the category-based nested form, belong in the scholastic tradition.

07/23/20

Comments on Armand Maurer’s Essay (2004) “Darwin, Thomists and Secondary Causality” (Part 5)

Ramifications

0065 Armand Maurer offers an essay that traces the notion of secondary causes from Darwin, back through Suarez and Aquinas, all the way to the Neoplatonic Book of Causes. He aims to show that God’s greatness is not diminished by NeoDarwinian theory.

Indeed, the working comparison shows that the normal contexts of Divine Will₃, natural selection_3b and body development_3b cannot exclude one another.

0066 This is not the view of the modern Zeitgeist, which declares that, in order for inquiry to be scientific, inquiry must exclude metaphysics.

0067 Darwin does not rise above the modern Zeitgeist. Nor can a reader expect him to. After all, the Zeitgeist fills the air that we breathe. The Zeitgeist stands between heaven and earth. There is no avoiding it.

At first, Darwin thinks that the concept of secondary causes provides a path to the acceptance of his theory. Unfortunately, this path is already blocked by the modern Zeitgeist. Later in life, Darwin declares himself agnostic.

0068 Now, I may ask, “What happens next?”

What happens in Western Civilization between 7660 and 7820 U0’?

If Darwin is on target about secondary causation, and if the modern Zeitgeist denies the possibility, then what happens when the esse of the thing [has power to cause] results₂ is no longer contextualized by the primary cause?

What if the Divine Will₃ and the Divine Presence₁ are systematically ignored, even ridiculed?

0069 Nature abhors a vacuum.

The positivist intellect rules out metaphysics in scientific inquiry, setting up a scenario where natural selection_3b and body development_3b exclude the Divine Will₃. Christians do not understand how to counter, because any attempt to respond meets the charge that the Christian is not scientific.

This leaves an opening for a new metaphysic, one that declares itself to be “not religious”.

0070 Does “not religious” mean the same as scientific?

Many moderns think so.

Indeed, how can a modernist distinguish between science and… er… a religious movement that says that it is “not religious”?

(See comments on Pennock’s eEssay on the distinction of science and religion, appearing at the end of June 2020)

Social Darwinism of the late 76^th and early 77^th century serve as an example. According to their dogma, humans inherit a social phenotype and are bound to certain civilizational adaptations.

Karl Marx, for example, envisions six stages, primitive barbaric communist, the slave, the feudal, the capitalist, the socialist and the communist. Social phenotypes differ for each one. For example, for feudalism, the two social phenotypes are the landowner and the serf.

According to Marxist myth, civilization progresses from one stage to another.

Each stage requires a different type of leader.

The esse of a leader includes the power to achieve adaptive organizational objectives.

0071 This calls to mind the master-work, How To Define the Word, “Religion”.

What is the potential_1aC underlying the actuality of an organizational objective_2aC?

Righteousness_1aC.

For Social Darwinism, that righteousness_1aC is “not religious”.

0072 Marxism becomes a brand of Social Darwinism.

Here is a general picture for the modern Zeitgeist.

0073 A vacuum is apparent.

Both modern intellectuals and the leader offer to fill in the blanks.

0074 Notably, the genetic basis of inheritance is not well understood during the century after Darwin. Mendel starts his experiments in 7653 U0’. James Watson and Francis Crick determine that the structure of DNA is a double helical polymer in 7753.

Consequently, what I call “body development_3b”, “the phenotype_2b” and “genotype_1b” are more mystically configured by Social Darwinists. They are conceived as social development_3b, cultural phenotype_2b and identity_1b. These terms appeal to folk psychology.

On top of this, even in very late Modernism, both intellectuals and leaders insist that human evolution is solely due to material and instrumental causes.

No one thinks that immaterial causes are relevant. This error is refuted in the master-work, The Human Niche.

Also, no one imagines a discontinuity between our current Lebenswelt and the Lebenswelt that we evolved in. This topic is addressed in the master-work, An Archaeology of the Fall.

0072 What is primary causation in modern movements that proclaim themselves to be “not religious”?

Different modern schools fill in the blanks in their own ways. Mercantilism, Fascism, Communism and Big Government (il)Liberalism each has its day. They each proclaim a different primary cause.

Maritain sees this. He lives to a ripe old age. He writes his essay on evolution, close to the end. He may not know how to put his vision into a precise, scientifically plausible, argument. He does know that the issue must be addressed, not by positivist intellects, but by rational intellects. Secondary causation must no longer be usurped by human agency. The slots for primary causation cannot remain empty.

0073 NeoDarwinism must be seen as an expression of secondary causation.

It is not the purpose of Maurer’s essay to show how.

The purpose is to show what must be done.

0074 The Book of Causes is translated into Arabic, by a Neoplatonic philosopher, living near Baghdad, shortly after al Ma’mun fails once and fails again, to reconcile Muslims, first, with one another, and second, with the rational intellect. Who would imagine that, a thousand years later, Charles Darwin would pick one of its key ideas, secondary causation, in order to justify his own scientific proposal?

The popularization of the idea comes through Aquinas, then Suarez.

The realization of the necessity of the idea comes through Maritain, and here, Maurer.

In this, the beauty of this essay excels.

06/28/20

Comments on Robert Pennock’s Essay (2009) “…the Difference between Science and Religion?” (Part 1)

0001 In 2009, Robert Pennock wants to clear the fog of intellectual warfare, by publishing an article in Synthese (DOI 10.1007/s11229-009-9547-3). The full title is, “Can’t Philosophers Tell the Difference Between Science and Religion?: Demarcation Revisited”. Of course, a recitation of this title should be accompanied by a pouring of the Balvenie, matured in rum casks and aged 14 years. After all, that is nearly the length of time that the words in Pennock’s paper have matured, in the cask of the Synthese.

Pennock’s abstract puts the headline question into context. The 2005 decision, Kitzmiller versus Dover Area School Board, rules that Intelligent Design (ID) cannot be taught as a science. This suggests that it cannot be taught at all, because the flip side of science is religion. Public schools cannot teach religion. That would violate the separation of church and state.

0002 The ruling follows a prior legal defeat, the 1981, McLean versus Arkansas decision against teaching creationism as science. Afterwards, creationists contend that religion and science cannot be distinguished. They cite a philosopher who claims that there are not sufficient criteria for demarcation, especially when considering method.

In contrast, Pennock argues that the word, “sufficient”, should be replaced by the word, “ballpark”. Rules of thumb are capable of distinguishing between science and religion. One rule of thumb is methodical naturalism. Science relies on it. Religion does not.

Does Pennock influence the 2005 Kitzmiller vs Dover trial?

Of course, why would Pennock write about the incident years later?

The text itself, is not clear.

What is clear?

Judge John E. Jones III rules that ID pretends to be a science. ID is really an apparatus of a sectarian religion. Teaching ID in public schools would be the establishment of a religion, in violation of the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Both sides of the case ask the judge to rule on this point.

0003 The ruling comes as a victory for Big Government (il)Liberals (BG(il)L), who portray the contest as follows.

The “villains” are the Board of Directors of the Public Schools of Dover, Pennsylvania. Creationists gain enough seats to vote to make the ID textbook, Of Pandas and People, available as biology curricula. In this book, natural selection becomes “Darwin’s theory”, which is not a fact, but a theory.

The “heroes” are several parents who sue the district. They all fall under the label, “Kitzmiller”.

Curiously, “kitze” is a neuter noun for a kid goat. “Miller” is a person who grinds grain in a mill. Perhaps, the concatenation carries a symbolic message.

The “villainous” school district is defended by the Thomas More Law Center, which does not realize that they are about to have their heads handed back to them. This becomes clear after they call key leaders of the ID movement to testify.

The lawyers at the Thomas More Center think that this trial will provide a platform for these players. But, as the media circus tent goes up, many ID players withdraw. What a disaster for the Dover Board lawyers!

0004 The BG(il)L corporate media portray the legal drama as a replay of the 1925 Scopes Trial.

To Pennock, the trial is more like the 1981 McLean vs Arkansas trial. The McClean decision concludes that so called “creation science” is not science, but religion. Here, “religion” means “a Christian faction”.

Such a ruling seems simple enough. But, the judge, William Overton, relies on a philosopher of science, Michael Ruse, who offers criteria to distinguish science from non-science.

0005 What are the criteria (A-E)?

Science (A) must be guided by natural law.

Science (B) explains by reference to natural law.

Science (C) is tested against the empirical world.

The conclusions of science (D) are tentative, and not necessarily the final word, because…

Science (E) is falsifiable.

0006 After the 1981 Overton decision, two philosophers, Larry Laudan and Philip Quinn, take issue with Ruse’s criteria. Do they write on behalf of the ID movement? Is this damage control? Pennock is drawn into the debate after he contributes expert testimony on the question whether ID is science or whether ID is religion.

Is this the trauma giving rise to Pennock’s article?

Hard to say.

0007 Pennock reflects upon the question posed in the title.

He wants to offer a more acceptable path for distinguishing science and religion.

06/27/20

Comments on Robert Pennock’s Essay (2009) “…the Difference between Science and Religion?” (Part 2)

0008 Can one differentiate science from non-science?

Why is this question relevant?

The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that the federal government shall not establish a religion.

Is that the same as establishing a non-science?

So, the first question twists. Is religion a non-science?

It turns away from an old relevance, where the word “religion” means “a Christian faction”.

It twists towards a new relevance, where “religion” is defined by an underlying meaning, presence and message. This is the topic of the masterwork, How To Define the Word, Religion.

0009 Why is this twist relevant?

What if the U.S. federal government establishes a religion?

What would be the nature of this religion?

Clearly, this religion is not a Christian faction.

Rather, it consists of diverse movements, a thousand points of light, that (F) claim to be “not religious” and (G) demand sovereign power in order to implement their organizational objectives. Since each objective arises from the potential of righteousness, these diverse religions constantly signal their virtues. They are keen on making sure that their organizational objectives get the government funds that they deserve. Righteousness wins power and money.

Does the legal debate that Pennock addresses concern a single point of light, among thousands?

No. Public education is… um… a big fish.

Yes, it’s a gigantic fish with sharp teeth.

0010 So, the question turns full circle.

Can science be taught as a religion?

The world is upside down. The ocean is where the sky should be. The sky is where the sea should be. The demarcation problem rests on the surface of this upside-down ocean. In this world, whales fly in the waters above.

The Story of Creation floats as a little boat that draws the leviathan of public education down from the heights, in a re-enactment of an orientation-challenged Moby Dick. The Captain Ahab of Creation Science wants to kill the leviathan, directly. In doing so, he would bring the celestial waters of the deep state into consciousness. The highly elevated deep state contains a thousand institutions, whose points of light orient Big Government (il)Liberals. Plus, this heavenly sea holds some really big fish.

Because these institutions_3aC, both lights and fish, have organizational objectives_2aC that emerge from (and situate) the potential of righteousness_1aC, they are religions.

They appear to be stars dwelling high in a fish-filled celestial ocean of righteousness.

Ah, the relevant question becomes, “How does one distinguish religion from non-religion?”

0011 Here is how this fully twisted vision appears.

0012 Does this explain why the dismissal of the demarcation problem is premature?

If the world is upside down, then The Creation Science aims to lance a leviathan that dwells deep in the narratives of the heavenly waters of Big Government (il)Liberalism.

06/26/20

Comments on Robert Pennock’s Essay (2009) “…the Difference between Science and Religion?” (Part 3)

0013 Okay. I must hold, in my mind, the upside-down celestial waters.

Within these waters, a leviathan swims, asking the questions, “Can Intelligent Design be taught as a science? How do we demark science and non-science (that is, religion)?”

But, those on the surface, the sailors on the ship, The Creation Science, suspect that the leviathan is really asking, “Can we teach science as a religion?”

Of course, it all depends on how one defines the word, “religion”.

0014 In section 3, Pennock considers the philosophy behind the 2005 Kitzmiller vs Dover decision and establishes five points (H-L).

First (H), Kitzmiller does not follow the criteria used in the McLean case (points A-E).

Second (I), Kitzmiller relies on a ballpark demarcation (a ground rule, so to speak). Creationism violates this ground rule.

Third (J), the ground rule is methodological naturalism. This rule says, “Metaphysics is not allowed.”

The word, “metaphysics”, is rooted in two terms, meta- (to cross over) and -physics (the physical). Naturalism does not allow its followers to pass out of the realm of phenomena. Phenomena consists in that which is observable and measurable.

0015 Pennock dwells on this point (J) at length.

To me, he describes the Naturalist’s judgment.

Allow me to elaborate.

A judgment is a primal triadic relation, consisting in three elements: relation, what is and what ought to be.

0016 The relation is the naturalist intellect, which rules out metaphysics. This relation is imbued with Peirce’s category of thirdness. Thirdness associates with a normal context₃, as described in A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form.

0017 What is consists of phenomena. Phenomena are observable and measurable features of a thing or event.

There is a certain philosophical emptiness to phenomena. After all, phenomena do not constitute the thing itself, even though some may imagine that this is the case. The thing itself cannot be objectified as its phenomena. So, there is a word for the thing itself: “noumenon”.

What does this imply?

What is may be expressed as a continuity between two real elements, a noumenon and its phenomena. That continuity is placed in brackets for notational clarity. What is consists of a noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena.

This dyad belongs to the category of firstness. Firstness is the monadic realm of possibility. Phenomena have the potential to be observed and measured. A noumenon has the potential of capturing the attention of the naturalist intellect.

0018 What ought to be consists of another judgment, where disciplinary language (relation, thirdness) brings together mechanical and mathematical models (what ought to be, secondness) with observations and measurements (what is, firstness). This triadic relation is called “the empirio-schematic judgment” and first appears in Comments on Jacques Maritain’s Book (1935) Natural Philosophy.

The empirio-schematic judgment, what ought to be, in the Naturalist’s judgment, is imbued with secondness, the character of actuality.

Here is a diagram.

0019 Fourth (K), the ground rule of “no metaphysics” does not appeal to the criterion of falsifiability (E).

At this point, I can see that the criteria espoused by Michael Ruse applies to portions of the Naturalist’s judgment. A and B cohere to the naturalist intellect (relation) and the selection of noumena (what is). Noumena must be things that have observable and measurable facets to their forms. C, D and E pertain to the connection between the empirio-schematic judgment (what ought to be) and phenomena (what is).

In terms of the metaphor of inversion, Michael Ruse’s criteria keep us firmly fixed in the celestial waters, where the leviathan of the “not religious” sciences swims.

0020 In order to appreciate this whale of a topic, swimming in the heights of state-funded liquidity, I unfold the Naturalist’s and the empirio-schematic judgments into category-based nested forms, based on their assigned categories. The result is a two-level interscope

The interscope is introduced in A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction.

Here is the diagram.

0021 Methodological_a naturalism_b may be depicted as a two-level interscope. Method goes with the empirio-schematic judgment. Naturalism goes with the Naturalist’s judgment.

The naturalist intellect_3b rules out metaphysics. This rule is Pennock’s last point (L). The rule, “no metaphysics”, comes from an occluded perspective level. The rule does not reveal what is in the perspective level. Indeed, the naturalist views the rule as coming from the content level.

Disciplinary language for each science_3a follows the rule of the naturalist’s intellect_3b. Any disciplinary language_3a that discusses metaphysics cannot be labeled as a “science”.

Of course, in this situation, the word, “metaphysics”, is code for Christian theology. But, that is not what “metaphysics” really means, as previously noted.

This exclusion follows the logic of normal contexts. Normal contexts exclude, align or complement.

0022 Creation science talks about metaphysics, while pretending not to.So, in the 1981 McLean vs Arkansas trial, the leviathan in the celestial waters of BG(il)L descends to upset the boat, The Creation Science, and bites off the leg of its captain.

06/25/20

Comments on Robert Pennock’s Essay (2009) “…the Difference between Science and Religion?” (Part 4)

0023 At this point, I run with two metaphors.

First, the world is upside down. The ocean of Big Government (il)Liberalism sloshes above, as a world suspended in surreal liquidity, heavy and looming. The regulatory sea holds a thousand points of light, each submerged in its own righteousness. A leviathan swims in these celestial waters. This leviathan applies the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution to education by state and federally funded institutions. These schools may teach science, but not religion. Here, “religion” means “a Christian faction”.

Second, a small boat, initially named The Creation Science, then later (after the unfortunate moment when the captain lost a leg to stand on) named The Intelligent Design, floats on the surface, that is, the bottom, of this inverted ocean. This boat hunts the above-mentioned leviathan. The academically inclined sailors fashion a lance of that looks like the methodological level of science. But, the captain does not fully comprehend what harm it can do.

The captain?

0024 Philosopher Larry Laudan comes under scrutiny in the fourth section of Pennock’s essay. After the McLean case (the leg-bite), this philosopher writes three articles denying a demarcation between science and religion. There are no criteria for strictly distinguishing what is religious, what is scientific, what is pseudo-scientific and what is unscientific.

Laudan struggles mightily against the criteria of Michael Ruse (A-E).

Two arguments support his conclusions (M and N).

The first (M) says, more or less, “There is a lack of unity between philosophers about the demarcation criteria.”

Okay, experts rarely agree. That is the nature of experts.

The second (N) says, more or less, “The 1981 McLean versus Arkansas case is hollow, because it canonizes a false stereotype of what science is and how it works.”

I suspect that this is correct because Ruse’s criteria (A-E) pertain to what is and what ought to be in the Naturalist’s judgment. The empirio-schematic judgment (what ought to be) unfolds into the content level of the following two-level interscope. The Naturalist’s judgment unfolds into the situation level.

0025 Michael Ruse’s criteria (A-E) draw attention to the content level.

Perhaps, this is why the author, Robert Pennock, wants to set the record straight.

The 1981 McLean case focuses on the content of science.

The 2005 Kitzmiller case focuses on the situation of science.

What does this suggest?

0025 The Intelligent Design comes up with a better tactic. Of Pandas and People follows the style of the empirio-schematic judgment. Ruse’s criteria lack teeth.Pennock sees this and proposes that science must be distinguished, not on the methodological level_a, but on the naturalism level_b. The ground rule of the naturalist intellect_3b is “no metaphysics”.

06/24/20

Comments on Robert Pennock’s Essay (2009) “…the Difference between Science and Religion?” (Part 5)

0026 In 1981, the ship, The Creation Science, encounters the leviathan swimming in the celestial waters. The captain loses a leg to stand on, but realizes that he can fashion a new leg even better than the first. He repairs the ship and re-brands her, The Intelligent Design. In 2005, this ship lures the leviathan down from its heavenly deep, once again.

In this interval, philosopher Larry Laudan vigorously attacks the foundation of the leviathan’s first victory. He pulls teeth. He demolishes the argument that science and religion may be distinguished on the basis of method.

Finally, The Intelligent Design opens sail with a methodology identical to the empirio-schematic judgment and coherent with its content-level nested form. The normal context of disciplinary language_3a, describing methods, brings the actuality of metaphysically-open models_2a into relation with the possibilities inherent in observations and measurments_1a.

0027 Once again, here is the two-level interscope for methodological_a naturalism_b.

0028 Pennock wants to defend the demarcation of science and religion. Method does not offer sufficient critieria. So, he configures a new foundation. He calls it “methodological naturalism”. But, the “method_a” has already been neutralized by Laudan. So, “naturalism_b” is the key.

To this end, in section 5 of this article, Pennock constructs a weak version of the distinction between science and religion, one that grants many of Laudan’s points. Tellingly, instead of referring to the ship’s new name, The Intelligent Design, Pennock sticks to the old label, The Creation Science.

Pennock writes four sub-sections (O-R).

0029 The first (O) concerns the dustbin of history.

Creation Science is not even a bad science. For example, some say that the Earth is only a few thousand years old. Others say that Noah’s Flood is global. These models are not supported by data.

0030 The second (P) concerns disciplinary language.

The ship, The Creation Science, has no coherent disciplinary language, outside of Biblical interpretation. The language of Intelligent Design is also incoherent. Even if one observes phenomena associated to impossible events, one cannot conclude that the events are miraculous.

Okay, one can conclude that the events are miraculous. But, that would violate the rules of the naturalist intellect_3b.

0031 The third (Q) is pragmatic.

Methodological naturalists recognize science. Why can’t philosophers like Laudan? Why are courses on the philosophy of science not taught by theologians?

What do the sailors on The Intelligent Design hear?

Someone in the waters asks, “Why are courses on the philosophy of religion not taught by scientists? Er… I mean… taught by highly certified naturalists who self-identify as ‘not religious’?”

Oh, never mind, they are.

0032 The fourth (R) is empirical.

Science educators say that there is a real distinction between science and non-science, such as Creation Science. The National Science Teacher’s Association insists that scientific claims are not religious.

Or, should I say that the empirio-schematic judgment is not religious?

What about “scientific” or methodological naturalism?

Is that not religious?

Of course, the rule of naturalism says, “No metaphysics.”

Who is surprised that no mechanical or mathematical models appeal to supernatural forces?

Pennock finally feels the sharp point of an issue that cannot be confronted. He states that his account explicates “scientific” naturalism as a methodological commitment, not a metaphysical one. The ground rule of “no metaphysics” is… um… not metaphysical.

0033 Say what?

What is the philosopher’s task?

Is it possible for a philosopher to accept that the claim to be “not religious” may, indeed, be not religious?

Since when do philosophers spout tautologies?

Take a glance, once again, at the two-level interscope for methodological naturalism.

There is a certain circularity to the structure. The content-level_a is the empirio-schematic judgment. The empirio-schematic judgment is the actuality₂ of the situation level_b.

0034 Where does the ground rule of “no metaphysics” come from?

Does it come from inside the circle?

Does it come from outside the circle?

Why is the perspective level empty?

What does that imply?

06/23/20

Comments on Robert Pennock’s Essay (2009) “…the Difference between Science and Religion?” (Part 6)

0035 In the sixth section of Robert Pennock’s Essay, titled “Can’t Philosophers Tell the Difference between Science and Religion?: Demarcation Revisited”, the author speculates why Larry Laudan fails to see a demarcation between science and religion. After all, it is so easy to see. Look at the rules.

Religion inspires the nautical mission of The Intelligent Design, in an inverted world, where Big Government (il)Liberalism commands the waters above and the world of tradition sublimates into the atmosphere below. The ocean is our ceiling. The air is our floor.

A thousand points of light shine in the immense celestial ocean. Each illumination is immersed in its own righteousness. A leviathan swims high in these heavenly, dense, waters. This leviathan addresses the issue of public education. The states require it. The states pay for it. The states perform it. It works even as Big Government (il)Liberalism turns the ocean into the sky. How it weighs upon us.

The U.S. Constitution says that the government shall not establish a religion. So, public education may teach science, which is not “religious”, but not Creation Science nor Intelligent Design, which are religious.

Here, “religion” means “a Christian faction”.

Pennock writes in triumph.

0036 Section 6 of Pennock’s essay diagnoses and rehabilitates Laudan.

Why does Laudan fail at recognizing the distinction between science and religion?

Pennock offers four reasons (S-V).

0037 First (S), Laudan does not take the creationist’s claims seriously. Creationists hold epistemological assumptions unfamiliar to science.

What does this mean?

The crew of The Creation Science promotes bad method. They do not adhere to the empirio-schematic judgment, because their disciplinary language includes metaphysics (that is, Christian theology).

0038 Second (T), Laudan does not frame the demarcation problem properly. We should not expect a “strict” line, based on criteria about methods.

To me, this means that the two-level interscope confuses. There are always two issues, one related to situation and one related to content. Here, the content level concerns scientific practice (that is, method). The situation level pertains to the Naturalist’s judgment (that includes, “no metaphysics”).

0039 Third (U), Laudan is influenced by Karl Popper’s claims that falsification defines scientific methodology.

Once again, the content level is the focus of attention.

0040 Fourth (V), the 2005 Kitzmiller decision does not appeal to falsification as demarcation criteria. Rather, it appeals to the very issue that Laudan seems to miss: The naturalist intellect_3b rules out metaphysics.

Pennock wonders, more or less, “What should we think about philosophers (such as Laudan), if they cannot distinguish between science and sectarian religion posing as science?”

I suspect both Pennock and his foil, Laudan, recognize the difference.

The question is, “What makes the difference real?”

Laudan says that the distinction is not real, because we cannot ascertain clear and valid demarcation criteria.

Well, he may not really say that. Pennock’s foil says that.

0041 The real difference concerns following the rules. Naturalism rules metaphysics out. Religion rules metaphysics in. The demarcation should express that fact that the rule of “no metaphysics” applies to naturalism but not Christian factions… I mean to say… “religion”.

To me, the issue shifts from methods to something more ambiguous. How does one decide whether the naturalist intellect’s rule is valid or not? The decision cannot be based on physics. The decision must be based on metaphysics.

The rule, “no metaphysics”, must ultimately be based on metaphysics.

0042 That means that free will enters the picture.

Pennock takes the naturalist rule at face value. Naturalism rules out metaphysics. Therefore, it is “not religious”. Does this mean that any institution that self-identifies as “not religious” can also say that it is “scientific”? Can this rule be gamed?

After all, this is precisely the issue in both 1981 McLean and 2005 Kitzmiller contests. Creation science blatantly tries to game the rule. Later, Intelligent Design (ID) games the rule in a much more sophisticated style. ID mimics the empirio-schematic judgment, occupying the content-level, while (sneakily) violating the naturalist’s rule of “no metaphysics”.

ID’s logic is easy to see. If an evolved attribute, such as a bacteria’s flagellum, is not possible, then a miracle must have occurred. A “mythical being” must have intervened.

0043 What does this “mythical being” do?

The mythical being does not cobble together phenomena. The mythical being creates a noumenon, the thing itself.

The merit to ID can thus be articulated, by saying, “God creates a noumenon and the scientists observe and measure its phenomena. Sometimes, phenomena do not fully account for their noumenon. This is the case for the bacteria’s flagellum and other biological structures.”

0044 Here is a picture of that statement.

0045 What potentiates the naturalist intellect_3b?

The dyad, a noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena_1b, does. This dyad belongs to what is_1b in the Naturalist’s judgment. This element is imbued with firstness, because phenomena are defined by their potential_1b to be observed and measured_1a and a noumenon_1b has the potential_1b of being discussed_3a by the naturalist intellect_3b.

The two components of this dyad tie into the content-level nested form of methodology. A noumenon_1b stands as the presence that is referred to in disciplinary language_3a. Its phenomena_1b virtually (meaning, “in virtue”) emerges from and situates observations and measurements_1a. The contiguity_1b is [cannot be objectified as].

0047 What does this imply?

The contiguity between a noumenon and its phenomena_1b cannot be explained by physics.

But, the naturalist intellect_3b has a rule that says, “Metaphysics is not allowed.”

0048 Hmmm. Have I located the metaphysical commitment within the Naturalist’s judgment?

The naturalist intellect_3b assigns the metaphysical aspect of creation to the noumenon_1b, which cannot be objectified as its phenomena_1b. So, disciplinary language_3a assumes the presence of the thing itself, the noumenon_1b, but dares not speak of it, for fear of violating the rule of “no metaphysics”_3b.

Physics cannot justify the rule of the naturalist intellect. So, it must be metaphysical.

Also, the source of this commitment comes from the empty perspective level_c.

0049 The naturalist_3b hides the source_2c of its metaphysical rule of “no metaphysics”.

What does this imply?

The system can be gamed.

0050 How?

We can cobble together phenomena in a manner that will tempt us into believing that a noumenon exists.

For example, in the 19^th century, various physical phenomena point to a noumenon, which scientists label “the ether”. The ether transports force through vacuum. As it turns out, the ether is completely imaginary. It is a mythical being.

0051 If science is “not religious”, then can a “not religious” religion game Pennock’s criteria, not from the side of Christianity, Judaism and Islam (which cannot shake the designation, “religious”), but from the side of the Big Government (il)Liberalism (where self-identification as “not religious” is common)?

06/22/20

Comments on Robert Pennock’s Essay (2009) “…the Difference between Science and Religion?” (Epilogue 1)

0052 The world is inverted. Above us stands the celestial ocean of Big Government (il)Liberalism (BG(il)L). Below ushovers an atmosphere where Christianity, Judaism and Islam are designated “religions”, and therefore excluded, by the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, from public (that is, state) institutions, especially schools. Their sublimation begins during the 1960s.

Die-hard Christians respond by generating something that appears to be science. Creation science makes claims about natural events verifying Biblical witness.

In 1981, the leviathan of BG(il)L public education sweeps down to the surface and attacks the little ship, The Creation Science, and ruins its effectiveness. Creation Science does not properly follow style of the empirio-schematic judgment. The McLean case distinguishes between science and religion on the basis of methodology.

0054 The captain of the ship lost one leg. But, he fashions a new one in the style of the empirio-schematic judgment. He rebuilds the ship, branding it The Intelligent Design.

In 2005, the leviathan is again provoked to come down through the celestial waters and attack the ship. The ship has a lance that pierces the skin of the leviathan. The Intelligent Design forces experts, such as Pennock, to come up with a demarcation that is situational. Intelligent Design does not follow the rule of the naturalist intellect. That rule says, “No metaphysics.”

In addition, the naturalist’s rule is not based on anything physical. So, the rule must be metaphysical.

0055 These comments reveal how the rule plays out. Metaphysics must be hidden within the presence of the thing itself, the noumenon_1b, which is contiguous with those properties that can be observed and measured, the phenomena_1b. The [contiguity] mirrors the rule. A noumenon_1b [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena_1b.

Here is how that looks.

0056 What does The Intelligent Design do that the Creation Science does not?

The Intelligent Design is equipped with an empirio-schematic judgment that observes and measures phenomena that do not fully add up to their noumenon, the thing itself. ID favors things that are very complicated, such as the bacteria’s flagellum or the human immune system, where many components are observed and measured_1a. Their corresponding phenomena_1b can never explain the thing itself: the bacteria swims and the human recovers from an illness. The models_2aare never sufficient. The whole is so much greater than the parts. The investigator experiences awe. The investigator is struck by a noumenon, but cannot say so, since “religion” is banished from disciplinary language.

The empirio-schematic judgment_2b is supposed to virtually emerge from (and situate) mechanical and mathematical models_2a. Methodological_a naturalism_b has a redundancy. The situation-level actuality_2b re-capitulates the content-level nested form_a. The situation-level actuality_2b completes the content-level nested form_a. There should be no surplus_2b, because any surplus_2b flows into something_1b that cannot be objectified as phenomena_1b. This something_1b is where metaphysics is hidden, according to the dictates of the naturalist intellect_3b. ID aims to show that the noumenon_1b has a life_c of its own, a life_1c that his hidden by the rule of the naturalist intellect_3b on the order of someone or something upstairs_2c.

Here is how that looks.

0057 That’s one way to game Pennock’s system.In 2005, the celestial leviathan mauls, but does not destroy the ship, The Intelligent Design. Plus, the leviathan takes a lance into its flank. The lance reveals the barbed fact that the leviathan depends on a metaphysical rule, stating that metaphysics is not allowed in science. The rope tied to the lance is long. Perhaps, 14 years long. Cheers.