0802 At the end of the second plate, Tabaczek responds to an objection (section 5.3).

Fortunately (for me), the objection comes from a fellow Thomist, Michal (in English, Michael) Chaberek.  Razie Mah has already considered one of Chaberek’s articles.  See Comments on Michal Chaberek’s Essay (2019) “Classical Metaphysics and Theistic Evolution”, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

Unfortunately (for me), I suspect that Tabaczek may object to my examination of Chaberek’s work.

But, why should I worry?

Tabaczek is in the kitchen and I am on the third… or is it the fourth plate?… of his intellectual banquet.

So, to me, I hear Tabaczek’s objection.  But, I am like a patron sitting in a restaurant when a little squabble takes place in the kitchen.  I cannot frame the dispute very well.  But, I hear raised voices and I know it is everyone in the kitchen potentially has a knife.

0803 The kerfluffle concerns the definition of the term, “species”.

Tabaczek offers a list of the categories of interest.

I present my own list.  As soon as the list meets the reader’s eyes, the reader should know where I am going with this.

0804 Of course, items two through five may be regarded as a manifestation of item one.

I wonder, “Does Chaberek conflate items two through five with term one?  Does he fail to differentiate items two through five sufficiently?”

Who cares?  The fourth plate still tastes great.  Plus, it shows the difficulties faced by the proponents of theistic evolution.  

0805 Here is the Greimas square.

When a science^agent (A) looks at the image of theology^agent in the science^mirror (C), he sees “biblical kinds”.

Oh, “biblical kinds” are not scientific.  Therefore, the term can be readily ignored.

0806 To me, this indicates that, despite Tabaczek’s objection to Chaberek’s apparent misconceptions, the advocates of theistic evolution need to choose their intellectual battles carefully.

0807 Chapter six of Theistic Evolution is titled, “Evolution and Creation”.

If evolutionary processes and transformations (A1) occur throughout the history of the created universe (D2), then we (B3) should treat evolutionary processes as an integral part of divine governance of the created world (B3), leading to its eschatological fulfillment (C4).

0808 Should we treat evolutionary processes (A) as intrinsic to God’s creation (D)?

Or should we (B) consider Thomistic terms, such as creatio ex nihilo, creatio continua, rationes seminales, transformation and governance as intrinsic to evolution (C)?

Ah, I am thrown back to a point well before Tabaczek’s banquet.

In the Greimas square, C qualifies A and D qualifies B.

Which will I follow, evolutionary creation or theistic evolution?

Uh-oh, I am starting to feel that I am going to be handed a bill for the meal.

Pay the bill before dessert?

0809 What on earth will dessert be?

Will it consist in the way that the meaning of nature is compounded with the presence of God and the message that the creation (that is, nature itself) is not God?

This is precisely what my impression of the Creation Story offers.

0810 What does the spoken word, “nature” mean₁ when it underlies um… the actuality of what we recognize as things in the world₂.

After all, all natural things have esse_ce and essence.  It is only when their contiguity, their substance, is revealed to be a creation of God that we become aware that all natural things₂ occur in the normal context of God’s word₃, which is also God’s Self-Manifestation_3a, and with the potential₁ of natural meaning.

What is the message of natural meaning?

Nature is not God.I think that may indicate that there will be a decorative swirl in the dessert.

0811 The problem (or is it the bill?) arrives in the next chapter, the seventh, titled Concurrence of Divine and Created Causes in Evolutionary Transitions.

Here is a problem for evolutionary creation (as opposed to theistic evolution).

If a theology^agent (B) uses Aquinas’s distinction between primary and secondary causation to account for the “mechanics” of evolutionary transitions, then the theological account becomes fuzzy, due to a lack of precision in defining secondary causes.

On top of that, the notion of the union of primary and secondary causes in evolutionary transitions, called “divine concurrence” (B), ends up confirming the scientist’s projection of his model into the mirror of theology (D), in so far as God “withdraws” in the face of scientific mathematical and mechanical propositions (C).

Of course, the reflection is reasonable.

Why would God break the rules that God created?

0812 Here is a picture of the resulting Greimas square of Tabaczek’s mirror.

0813 Tabaczek offers a refinement to one exercise in evolutionary creation, in an effort to translate it into an exercise in theistic evolution.

Tabaczek focuses on the slow transition of one species to (say) two species over time, due to (say) a geographical separation of the species induced by a geological barrier.  The two species genetically drift apart due to random walks of DNA modifications. This isolation model relies on the constant production of variability with offspring, with very little natural selection.

The isolation model is one of the favorite explanations for speciation by geneticists, because it relies only on the phenotype side of the intersection for species.  Forget those natural historians with their excursions into nature.  The genetics lab is the place to be.

0814 By now, the reader of this examination is familiar with the use of the Greimas square for elaborating the optics of Tabaczek’s mirror.

It is not perfect.  But, it is certainly suggestive.

Here are the first three steps to evolutionary creationism.

0815 For example, a geneticist models the speciation of isolated populations with simulations of DNA-sequence drift due to random errors induced by extra-terrestrial gamma rays plus random assortment of chromosomes in sexual reproduction.  Actually, one does not really need the gamma rays, but I thought I would throw that in because gamma rays increase modification in the slogan “descent with modification”.

0816 Then, the scientist (A1) looks in the mirror of theology (D2) and declares, “My model is really better than the noumenon of speciation due to geological barriers because it is way more scientific than ‘Hey look, the butterflies on this side of the mountain are different than the ones on the other side.’.”

The evolutionary creationist (B3) then takes what he sees in the mirror of theology (D2) and makes a distinction between transcendent and immanent orders of causation.  The transcendent order associates to primary causation.  The immanent order associates to instrumental and secondary causations.  Instrumental causation goes with the scientific overlay of the noumenon.  Secondary causation goes with the dispositions [properties] powers of the parents and offspring… and well… all the phenomena that go with a single act of “descent with modification”.

0817 Whew!

Was that the dessert?

0818 Tabaczek (B3) concludes that when parental organisms give birth (over time, in section 7.5) to a new exemplar of their own species, the parents act as proper causes (which is basic), secondary causes (of the instantiation of a new essence) and instrumental causes (of the new organism’s esse_ce and essence, that is, the new exemplar itself).

0819 I ask, “What appears in the mirror of science (C4)?”

Here is a picture of the Greimas square.

0820 Yes, dessert tastes like evolutionary creationism.

While I pay the bill, I wonder, “Do all the figures in chapter seven of Theistic Evolution foundationally conform to a category-based nested form?”

0821 My recent encounter with the terms, “primary and secondary causation” suggests the answer is “yes”.

So does the passage, ranging from points 0391 to 0413, concerning the nature of the interventional sign-relation.

Here is the figure presented at that time.

0822 Another instance appears a passage covering points 0582 to 0588 and inspires the following diagram.

0823 What does this imply?

All of Tabaczek’s figures in chapter seven can be reconfigured as category based nested forms.

0159 I suppose that Tabaczek’s element of surprise is precisely the message that all the scientists and most philosophers of science have not received.  No one has gotten the memo.  The positivist intellect is dead.

So, Tabaczek survives and is rewarded his doctoral degree.

0160 So, what does this particular book concern?

The full title is Divine Action and Emergence: An Alternative to Panentheism.

The subtitle reveals Tabaczek’s concern.

0161 Tabaczek wants to establish an Aristotelian alternative to what contemporary science-loving theologians project from the science side of Tabaczek’s mirror into the theological side.

Remember, these science-justifying theologians are looking at their own image.

0162 What do they see?

Is God like the thing itself, a noumenon?

Is the world like its phenomena?

If so, then here is what the theologians on the science side see in Tabaczek’s mirror.

0163 Of course, every Christian theologian will admit that God cannot be objectified as the world.  The theological position that God can be objectified as the world is called pantheism.

But, one wonders, what does the contiguity, [cannot be objectified as], imply?

Remember that hylomorphes belong to Peirce’s category of secondness and that the logics of secondness are that of contradiction and noncontradiction.

Surely, [cannot be objectified as] involves a contradiction that cannot be resolved.

0164 So, is there a metaphor that expresses this type of contradiction?

An obvious metaphor is containment.  What is contained cannot objectify its container.  Wine cannot objectify its bottle.  The stomach cannot objectify Mr. Tummy.

Consequently, a metaphor stands ready at hand to replace the contiguity, [cannot be objectified as].

Here is a picture.

0165 The term, “world in God”, transliterates into the technical label, “panentheism”.

0166 Tabaczek’s introduction summarizes some of the material in Emergence.

Everyday science focuses on “truncated” material and efficient causes.  “Truncated” represents “a divorce from formal and final causation”.

Typically, material causes meet the requirements of formal causes and efficient causes are intentionally bound to final causes.  So “truncated” also implies that a scientist may surreptitiously slip formal and final causes into his models by defining terms in such a way that they appear to describe modern material and efficient factors, while harboring the shadows of the other causalities.

0167 For example, consider the claim that glucose tastes sweet because it is full of calories.

Yes, that sounds like truncated material and efficient causalities.

Plus, there is the added hint of formal (calories is a formal requirement) and final (sweetness is an incentive) causes.

0168 Why do scientists rely on truncated material and efficient causalities?

These serve as constants and variables in mathematical and mechanical models.

Models are what ought to be (secondness) in the empirio-schematic judgment.  The category of secondness is the realm of actuality.  So, oddly enough, models are more actual than observations and measurements (what is, firstness, the realm of possibility).

Here is a picture.

0169 The empirio-schematic judgment describes the actual practices of modern science.  Disciplinary language (relation, thirdness) brings mechanical and mathematical models (what ought to be, secondness) into relation with observations and measurements (what is, firstness).  Since each element is assigned to one of Peirce’s categories, the judgment is actionable.  An actionable judgment unfolds into a category-based nested form on the basis of the assigned categories.

The empirio-schematic judgment corresponds to what ought to be (secondness) in the Positivist’s judgment, where a positivist intellect (relation, thirdness) brings the empirio-schematic judgment (what ought to be, secondness) into relation with the monadic “hylomorphe”, a noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena (what is, firstness).

The thing itself cannot be objectified as its observable and measurable facets.

0170 Here is a diagram.

0171 Now I have a question concerning ‘what is’ in the Positivist’s judgment.

If hylomorphes exemplify Peirce’s secondness, then why is this “hylomorphe” assigned to the category of firstness?

A hylomorphe may be assigned to firstness, when both sides of the hylomorphe correspond to the same thing.  Why? There is only one (not two) real element(s).  In other words, if there is no noumenon, then there are no phenomena.  If there are no phenomena, then it is doubtful that there is a noumenon.

0172 An apparently sleeping student suddenly raises a hand and asks, “But, if there are phenomena, but there is no noumenon, then can one assign a noumenon and pretend that it is the thing itself?”

Then another student pipes in, “And what about when a noumenon does not have any phenomena, but one is certain that the thing itself must exist?  Based on the conviction that there is a noumenon, can one identify its phenomena?”

0173 Uh-oh.  I should not have asked that question.

Meanwhile, since each element in the Positivist’s judgment is assigned to one of Peirce’s categories, the judgment may “unfold” into a category-based nested form.

0174 Here is a rendition of the resulting nested form.

0175 This category-based nested form describes everyday science.

Researchers are perfectly happy with this arrangement.

Unfortunately, early on in the Age of Ideas, science becomes triumphant.  So, even though Kant’s slogan cleverly isolates the metaphysical unity of the thing itself₁ from its diverse observable and measurable facets₁, triumphalist advocates for science virtually situate the Positivist’s judgment_a with the empirio-schematic judgment_b.  Consequently, the scientific process_b virtually situates the um… intellect_3a that contextualizes the scientific process_2a.

0176 Here the resulting two-level interscope.

0177 This sensible construction sounds like a tautology.  It is a tautology.  Models_2b situate models_2a.

At the same time, the mathematical and mechanical models_2b on the situation level are not quite the same as the mathematical and mechanical models that stand in the slot for what ought to be in the empirio-schematic judgment_2a.  The models_2b on the situation level are successes.  They_2b are so successful that they may contend for the slot for the noumenon_1a. The models in the empirio-schematic judgment_2a are more tentative.  They_2a are fashioned to account for observations and measurements_2a of phenomena_1a.

0178 What does that imply?

Let me focus on what_1b situates the content-level potential_1a.

On the content level, observations and measurements in the empirio-schematic judgment_2a directly emerge from (and situate) phenomena_1a.  Phenomena_1a are the observable and measurable facets of their noumenon_1a.  

On the situation level, observations and measurements on the situation level_1b virtually situate phenomena_1a that… how to say it?… objectify their noumenon_1a.  In other words, a successful model_2b should tell the inquirer what the noumenon_1amust be.

0179 College-level science laboratories typify triumphalist science.

0180 Triumphalist science? 

A model replaces the noumenon?

Are models more real than things themselves?

I suppose that it depends on how one defines the spoken words, “more real”.

0181 First, there are fields of inquiry where mathematical and mechanical models are inadequate.

Around 1860 AD, when Charles Peirce realizes that the causality inherent in sign relations cannot be reduced to truncated material and efficient causes, he starts the postmodern discipline of semiotics.

Around 2010 AD, Mariusz Tabaczek realizes that the causality inherent in emergent phenomena cannot be reduced to truncated material and efficient causes, he enters a graduate program in order to explore the lacuna.  This is the background story for his first book, titled Emergence.

0182 Second, alternatives are already on the horizon.

One alternative is analytical philosophy, where the normal context of Wittgenstein’s formulations_3b bring the actuality of logical positivism_2b into relation with the potential of various theories attempting to preserve the integrity of empirio-schematic models_2a.

Here is a picture.

Tabaczek introduces this alternative in the introduction to Part 2 of Divine Action and Emergence and in chapter four of Emergence.  Analytic philosophy proposes six views of causation for emergent phenomena.  Tabaczek finds them all inadequate. 

0183 A better alternative is Terrence Deacon’s approach, also discussed in Emergence.

Here, a disciplinary language inspired by Aristotle_3b contextualizes the actuality of emergence [entails] downward causation_2b in regards to the potential of constraints and biases applied to spontaneous processes_1b.

Does that sound correct?

Maybe not.

“Downward causation” is too shallow.  “Dynamical depth” sounds better.

Plus, “absence theory” can virtually situate emergent phenomena_1a while accepting the noumenon’s metaphysical unity_1a.

0184 Thus, Tabaczek’s introduction informs me (the examiner) that both of these contemporary approaches_3b are viable once the positivist intellect_3a becomes a ghost, unable to enforce its rule outlawing metaphysics.

I wonder, “How is empirio-schematic inquiry_2a going to maintain itself, when the positivist intellect_3a passes into shadow?   What happens to the potential of phenomena and the lingering need to virtually situate the noumenon_1a? “

Well, it cannot be too bad, because Part 1 is titled, “The Phenomenon of Emergence”.