Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

funny -- I was just looking at books and saw the spine for the Metaphysics, and thought I should also pick it up again.

Not to suggest that your occasion is the material, efficient, formal or final cause of my own ...

I still can't read seriously at the computer as you seem to.

I can't read seriously at the computer either. So, I took my browning paper copy, sat on our couch, and got 10 pages in before I fell into a fortifying nap, at which point I really felt ready to dig in, and by page 15 had fallen into another and even more fortifying nap.

But those 15 pages were seriously amazing. Seriously.

And speaking of the four causes...

David, earlier you criticized the popular notion that "DNA is information" because in reality DNA is "stuff".

Aren't you over privileging the material "cause" (ousia) over the "formal" (logos)?

Following Aristotle's Metaphysics: DNA _is_ stuff, and DNA _is_ information.

And sticking with the four causes, DNA _is_ also the creation (method of making) of living things, and a living thing _is_ the final result (telos) of DNA.

Ob. Cit. Metaphysics V.II

Ouch!

But, formally, I think DNA still isn't information. It's a molecule in the graceful shape of a double helix. There is obviously value in viewing DNA in terms of information, and the information-view captures something true about DNA. The difference is (I think) that it doesn't matter what medium information is expressed in: You can sketch it on a napkin, code it into silicon, or model it with sticks. But it matters a hell of a lot whether something with the formal properties of DNA is plastic, silicon, or an organic compoound. And I think Aristotle's on my side in this one. (But, it's been 25 years since I read him, and you're obviously at least four chapters ahead of me! :)

Αγεωμετρητος μηδεις εισιτω. Γνωθηι σεαυτον.

Hey, what must I do to be able to read greek font directly on Perseus project? I only get latin transliteration.

I see the Greek in your comment. Download a Greek font.

Some pre-reading for your pre-writing? Ha ha. Ha.

I would have to do some pre-sleeping before I pick up my copies of same books. Maybe if I had already cut up the apple it would be pre-pared, so if I put a tape on the Cliff Notes under my pillow to get the wheels turning I could gain some pre-cognition. Next morning I'd pre-post about it, but would that be pre-posterous? Being pre-clued, I could find myself pre-cluded!

And what if I wake up before my delicious breakfast is served - pre-sumptuous? Pre-dictable, as I said before.

Cheers - sorry if I sound monkeyish - re:pre-hensile or re:pre-hensible? You must kill your choice in advance, or commit pre-decide.

E@L

What pre-science! If this project were pre-dictable, I'd be able to read the whole thing into a tape recorder right now and be done with it!

put uesful items on this site