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Posted by ramellini on November 03, 1999 at 01:54:49:
In Reply to: Re: The genetic program: creator, demiurge, or neither? (Re: Program God) posted by Pierre on November 01, 1999 at 18:05:12:
Dear Pierre,
you say: "none of the more rigorous definitions you proposed can apply in
biology to explain what the program is supposed to do".
We must distinguish between definitions, which tell us what an entity is, and
explanations, which tell us how possibly an entity is. More rigorously, we call
definition of the term X a sentence which lists the necessary and sufficient
conditions to call X an entity, inside a certain theoretical framework; we call
explanation of the entity X a sentence which lists the recognizable and
ripeteable conditions of possibility of X, inside a certain theoretical
framework.
So, the definition of GP is not forced to explain GP. Defining 'GP' is listing
the necessary and sufficient conditions to call 'GP' an entity, inside the
theoretical biology framework; explaining GP is listing its conditions of
possibility, inside the theoretical biology framework. Just as an example,
without no claims of being exhaustive, we could call GP the system of
information necessary to maintain a cell, while we could explain GP saying that
it must take root on a set of certain chemical substances, it must derive from
a preceding GP similar to it, and so on.