homeostasis and the reappearance of teleology
page 30 -
Damasio says - 'The single word homeostasis
is a convenient shorthand for the ensemble of
regulations and the resulting state of regulated life'
and in the note to this he gives the game away -
note 5 -
'the word homeodynamics is even more appropriate
than homeostasis because it suggests the process
of seeking an adjustment rather than a fixed point
of balance. Steven Rose introduced the term for
these same reasons....'
Spinoza -
pt.I. Concerning God Appendix
'Now since all these prejudices I am attempting to
point out depend upon this one point, that men
commonly suppose that all natural things act like
themselves with an end in view, and since they
assert that God directs all things to a certain end
(for they say God made all things for man, and man
that he might worship God, I shall therefore consider
this one thing first, inquiring in the first place,
why so many acquiesce in this prejudice, and why
all are by nature so prone to embrace it; then I
shall show its falsity, and finally, how from this
there have arisen prejudices concerning good and bad,
merit and wrong-doing, praise and blame, order and
confusion, beauty and ugliness, and other things of
this kind......'
further on he says -
'Thus I have explained what I undertook in the first
place. It is not necessary for me now to show at length
that nature has no fixed aim in view, and that all final
cause are merely fabrications of men. For I think this
is sufficiently clear from the bases and causes from
which I have traced the origin of this prejudice,
from Prop. 16, and corollaries of Prop. 32, and above
all from all those propositions in which I have shown
that all things in nature proceed eternally from a
necessity and with utmost perfection. I should add,
however, this further point, that the doctrine of
final causes overthrows nature entirely.'
the way I would put it is that substance has no end
for if it did - it would not be substance - for that
would mean there was something out side of substance -
a contradiction
so the point is - in science - not to fantasize
deal with what is -
this by the way is not to say there is no place for
fantasy - Spinoza for one recognizes the place of
imagination in life
but imaginative constructions - are not in his view
science
teleological fantasies are imaginative constructions
not science
which brings me back to
homeostasis / homedynamics
Damasio is putting a teleological thesis here - OK -
except it's being put fraudulently - not as a imaginative
construction - a comforting meta fairy tale - but rather
it's being spruiked as science
'the process of seeking'
the 'regulated' life
very good I hope he gets there - but leave nature -
and science out of this quest
this is so presumptuous - so anthropomorphic
regardless of your attitude to Spinoza
this is bad science
