Re: [asa] What is exactly is a TE?

In response to Gregory's questions, I would say:
1.Yes -- essentially.
2. Sorry, "revolution" is a typo for "evolution".
3.I accept cosmological and biological evolution. I do not take Teilhard
de Chardin's extreme posoityion.
4. I am using evolution in today's context -- in the Darwinian sense.
Any alternative usage by Spencer is something going beyond Darwinian
evolution.
5. It seems to me that such language is being used in a very general
sense and is not relevant to my position. (Incidentally I am not an
engineer, despite the fact that I am a member of an engineering faculty.)
Don

Gregory Arago wrote:
>
> Don Nield contributes as follows: “The E in TE refers to Evolution in its scientific sense. It includes cosmological evolution and biological evolution and also those aspects of cultural revolution that are scientific -- it does not include the non-scientific extensions made by some sociologists such as Herbert Spencer… [and that other guy].”
>
> I have several questions about this post: 1) Is Don’s point simply that ‘evolution IS science/scientific,’ end of story, and thus therefore speaking tautologically the ‘E in TE… [is meant in a] scientific sense’? 2) Why ‘revolution’ when speaking of culture? 3) How can cosmological and biological evolution be thought as ‘under the umbrella’ of TE – isn’t this taking the extreme position of Teillhard de Chardin, that is, over-reaching a grand unified theory into areas about which one might know very little? 4) Herbert Spencer used the term ‘evolution’ before Darwin published OoS, thus how could his work be considered a ‘non-scientific extension’ of (I assume Don means) Darwinian evolutionary theory? 5) Finally, does anything an engineer ever ‘make/build/design/construct/etc.’ count as something that ‘has evolved’ (into being or having become)? From my pov, engineers do exactly that, they engineer, that is, they quite clearly do not ‘evolve’ things. To speak in such a
> language as ‘evolution’ for an engineer makes no sense; however, when engineers are trying their hand in biology, then speaking in evolutionary language may be suitable.
>
>

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Received on Mon Sep 3 23:19:37 2007