[Inquiry] Re: Purpose Of Scientific Inquiry -- Discussion

[Jon Awbrey]

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o

POSI.  Discussion Note 3

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o

JW = John Warfield

Re: POSI-DIS 1.  http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/003232.html
In: POSI-DIS.    http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-November/thread.html#3232

John, Arisbe List, Cybernetics List,

I will start with your last paragraph first,
as it touches on topics that are currently
uppermost in my mind.

JW: In this respect I wonder if folks working on graphics in chemistry
    or Peirce-like graphics have sat down and looked at the foundational
    assumptions of their work and found them to lie outside the scope of
    elements and relationships.  I ask this knowing that virtually all
    scientific investigators have placed undue relationships on elements
    and always treated relationships as intuitive, not making the explicit,
    this being true from the time of Aristotle onward.

The history of the algebra/chemistry/logic/math connections, as it ravels
through the oeuvres of Cayley, Clifford, Kempe, Peirce, Sylvester, et al.,
is a fascinating study indeed, but our evaluation of its lasting impact
will depend on the degree to which we interpret graph-theoretical forms
in a largely literal or a more metaphorical fashion.  Just for example,
Cayley's memoirs "On the Theory of the Analytical Forms Called Trees"
(1857) and "On the Analytical Forms Called Trees" (1881) dealt with
the patterns of derivation that arose in algebras of differential
operators, involving an extremely abstract and most non-literal
isomorphism between two realms of pattern.  Generally speaking,
I think it's fair to say that the most fruitful relationships
have been at this level of analysis, while the more literal
or directly iconic correspondences have largely turned out
to be will-o-th-wisps (wills-o-th-wisp?).

Now, Peirce's work, from the "Logic of Relatives" (1870) on,
was expressly devoted to analyzing relations among elements,
placing the relations on a par with the entities themselves.

Jon Awbrey

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
inquiry e-lab: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o