tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-223797477664258632.post2890825330000371103..comments2023-09-11T01:18:18.763-07:00Comments on Natural Right and Biology: The autonomous organismKen Blanchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09580209017016829598noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-223797477664258632.post-83433497848049579802014-05-09T20:01:33.099-07:002014-05-09T20:01:33.099-07:00Miranda: My apologies again for delaying this rep...Miranda: My apologies again for delaying this reply. On the high note, I just got my grades in and I will be on sabbatical this fall!<br /><br />Both physicists and pious theologians have sometimes concluded that all events are rigidly determined before they occur and that all human actions (mental or physical) count as events. Even if that is so, it is possible to speak meaningfully of self-determination. <br /><br />What part of your house key opens the door? Is it the material in the key or something else? Answer to the second question: both. Without the bronze or whatever, there is no key. Neither is there a key without the information embedded in the metal. What part of the key does the work? Answer: no part of the key. It is the whole key that does the work. The power to open the door is what makes this a genuine whole. <br /><br />When a mammal maintains body heat as the temperature outside its fur drops, what part of the mammal is responsible? Answer: no part. It is the whole animal that steadfastly resists determination by its environment. To be sure, this animal did not create itself; neither, however, is it governed by remote control from the past, present, or future. It is endowed with the means to maintain itself. <br /><br />This is what it means to be alive or, in early, better language, to have a soul. I stand with Aristotle in arguing that all living things have souls and that more complex living things have new orders of soul laid down upon older ones. Even the prokaryotes are autonomous beings. Ken Blanchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09580209017016829598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-223797477664258632.post-5571195310662923582014-05-03T13:01:54.594-07:002014-05-03T13:01:54.594-07:00Dr. Blanchard: Thank you for your explanation. It ...Dr. Blanchard: Thank you for your explanation. It isn't the idea that there might be exceptions to rules that I am struggling with here. It is the idea that the eukaryote cell is determining principles for itself. It appears to me that either nature or nature's God has determined the principles the eukaryote cell follows for it - even if those principles are different from other laws. I suspect that I may not be fully grasping what you mean by self-determination.Miranda Flintnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-223797477664258632.post-4603803123917985602014-05-02T19:51:47.716-07:002014-05-02T19:51:47.716-07:00Occasionally the Rabbis have had to modify the law...Occasionally the Rabbis have had to modify the laws that govern Jewish practice. For example, Jewish armies have to be allowed to fight on the Sabbath. How is this reconciled with obedience to the laws of God? In this way: an exception is allowed to one rule in order that the law in general will continue to be observed. <br /><br />The principles that the eukaryote cell follows are precisely those that allow it to continue laying down and practicing its laws. Eat this. Don't eat that. Thou shalt not allow the salt continent of the cell to rise above X or the water content to fall below Y. By following such laws, the Eukaryote cell resists the forces that surround it and thus maintains its being. Such laws are fundamentally different from the reactive laws that govern physics and chemistry. Hence the autonomy of all organisms. Ken Blanchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09580209017016829598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-223797477664258632.post-25693031629327228462014-04-26T16:03:20.550-07:002014-04-26T16:03:20.550-07:00I learned a great deal from this series of posts o...I learned a great deal from this series of posts on autonomy and particularly like the definition you provide in this last post; however, I have been struggling with the idea that having autonomy is necessary for an organism to be considered living if autonomy is defined as "the capacity to act according to self-determined principles." <br /><br />What sort of self-determined principles does a eukaryote follow? M. Flintnoreply@blogger.com