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To: jennyp
Remember: When things can come together in specific ways, they become components of the newly emerged complex entity (for example: an organism).

What is organization? What is an organism? The "form" of a creature is its organizing principle. How can materialism account for organization?

Consider this case. The human body before death is very similar to the human body a moment after death. What's the difference between a corpse and a living human being? What's missing from the corpse?

An organism can be explained in terms of its component parts, but that doesn't mean it is nothing more than its parts.

Of course. But how can materialism account for this? Materialism is inherently reductionistic.

40 posted on 11/23/2005 4:37:26 AM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: Aquinasfan
An organism can be explained in terms of its component parts, but that doesn't mean it is nothing more than its parts.

Of course. But how can materialism account for this? Materialism is inherently reductionistic.

Emergent properties are all around us in the material world. It's a mundane fact of the natural world. I don't see the problem that needs to be "accounted for".

And what exactly do you mean by "accounted for", anyway?

(I'll let you have the last word...)

41 posted on 11/23/2005 12:10:51 PM PST by jennyp (WHAT I'M READING NOW: Art of Unix Programming by Raymond)
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