Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

ENFORMATIONISM

A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to the ancient worldviews of Materialism and Idealism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's also a Theory – of – Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.

  Post 138.  October 7, 2024

  Holism and Evolution

     Emergence in Evolution

Although Smuts was mostly concerned with finding a scientific explanation for how complexity and novelty could emerge from materialistic and mechanical processes, his theory is still not widely accepted by evolutionary scientists. A footnote in the book says, “Professor Lloyd Morgan has made the creative or emergent character of evolution the theme of his book on Emergent Evolution¹¹”. And Morgan’s 1923 book introduced the notion of emergent novel features into biology. But, he insisted that “higher mental faculties should only be considered as explanations if lower faculties could not explain a behaviour”. On the other hand, Smuts argued that Morgan emphasized the “psychical factor at all stages of the physical factor”. He went on to comment that “this view seems to be a reversion to the preformation¹² type of evolution”. And yet it ignores how the miniature structure came to be formed in the embryos. Ironically, Smuts also avoided the religious explan-ation of Intelligent Design, and the Platonic explanation of eternal Logos & Form as the cause of all emergent forms. He was acutely aware that his hypothesis of Holism “falls outside the scope of science”. Nevertheless, he was loathe to label it as a mere philosophical assumption or axiom. Which, until Holism is empirically proven, it is.

Even so, Gravity¹⁴ is a similar causal function in science, that is taken for granted¹³ instead of empirically proven. So, Smuts’ reticence may be unnecessary. As he observed, “Holism, owing to its pervasiveness and universality, cannot be so tested”. He also noted that “science is thus for ever encroaching on the domain of philosophy”. And that intrusion of empirical facts into a formerly hypothetical field of academia is a sign of progress. Smuts argues that Holism breaks new ground, as it designates a novel causal function in evolution that was formerly assumed but unexplained. Then he says that it is “intended as the basis of a new Weltanshauung within the general framework of Science”. Likewise, I have adopted Holism as a key feature of my own worldview of Enformationism, because it provides a non-mechanical medium for counteracting destructive Entropy¹⁵ with creative EnFormAction. Smuts even quotes Goethe who said “in the beginning was the act”, which was probably a reference to the creative act in Genesis.

However, he avoids positing any deity or force acting outside of space-time evolution. “Such seems to be the nature of Evolution, and it appears to be fatal alike to the retrospective interpretation of the universe according to Idealism, and the prospective interpretation according to Naturalism. Mind or Spirit did not exist at the beginning, either implicitly or explicit-ly, but it does most certainly exist now as a real factor”. So all of those higher Holisms are emergent instead of eternal.  I can agree with that assessment, except that, in the light of the Big Bang theory¹⁶ — which assumed the prior existence of causal Energy and natural Laws — the Potential for such factors must have existed eternally. His scientific theory avoids making any super-natural claims, but my philosophical hypothesis must account for the explosive and organizing power that logically pre-existed the beginning of space-time. So, I am logically obliged to imagine an eternal philosophical Logos or First Cause, to provide the timeless idealistic holistic Potential from which our entropic and temporary world emerged. 

11. Emergent evolution :
    “the hypothesis that, in the course of evolution, some entirely new properties, such as mind and consciousness, appear at certain critical points, usually because of an unpredictable rearrangement of the already existing entities.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergent_evolution

12. Preformation theory :
    “also known as preformism, is a biological theory that states that an organism's structure is already present in its sex cells and that development is simply a matter of growth. It was a popular theory among biologists in the 18th century and was based on the idea that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves.”
___Google AI overview

13. Gravity is axiom :
   “Yes, gravity is an assumption in science because it cannot be proven. While we have never observed gravity change, we cannot prove that it will not change in the future.”
___Google AI overview

14. Holism & Gravity :
   “Holism and gravity are both natural forces that can be considered to be on par with each other.”
___Google AI overview
Note — Smuts didn’t make that connection, but both are causal forces that work in mysterious ways to produce “spooky action at a distance”

15. Holism & Entropy :
   “ holism emphasizes the interconnectedness and emergent properties of a system, while entropy describes its tendency towards disorganization and equilibrium.”
___Google AI overview

16. Big Bang Beginning :
   All philosophical and scientific origin theories, including Inflation & Multi-verse & Idealism, assume axiomatically that Causal Power (First Cause) and Logical Structure (Logos) must be eternal, and self-existent. Otherwise, the evolutionary expansion and its organizing tendencies would remain inexplicable and mysterious.

Emergence of novel forms & functions
in evolution

Blog Post 138 continued . . . click Next

   Entropic :
 chaotic, without form or order, lacking order, and gradually losing order
___Google AI overview