Re: Abstract to concrete

Rolfe Windward (rwindwar who-is-at ucla.edu)
Mon, 23 Sep 1996 09:31:46 -0700

Thanks to Yrjo for that clarification: the use(s) of the words abstract and
concrete in dialectical logic have always confused me. Now I can see it as
akin, in its root metaphor at least, to von Bertalannfy's concept of
anamorphosis or Varella's autopoiesis or, in embryology, Baer's law: the
historical primacy of generality (and the epigenetic privileging of
complexity). In Salthe's work this would be a specification hierarchy: the
intensional complexification (becoming less "vague") of any
evolving/developing system. This also maps, in broad outline at least, onto
Peirce's notion of "habit taking" -- the progression from firstness to
secondness -- and makes the notion of an ideal form more accessible to me
even though, in Salthe's synthesis of evolution and development at least,
this form could be the machine.

Doubtless many devils in the details, but it's nice to be able to think
about it analogically now.

Rolfe Windward [UCLA GSE&IS: Curriculum & Teaching]
e-mail: rwindwar who-is-at ucla.edu (Text/BinHex/MIME/Uuencode)
70014.0646 who-is-at compuserve.com (text/binary/GIF/JPG)