Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Collection: Papers bei B. Lonergan

Titel: Collection: Papers bei B. Lonergan

Stichwort: Definition: dynamische Struktur; materiell, formal, dynamisch

Kurzinhalt: Each part is what it is in virtue of its functional relations to other parts; The whole itself may be self-assembling, d self-constituting; then it is formally dynamic. It is a dynamic structure

Textausschnitt: 205d A whole, then, has parts. The whole is related to each of the parts, and each of the parts is related to the other parts and to the whole. (Fs)

206a Not every whole is a structure. When one thinks of a whole, there may come to mind some conventional quantity or arbitrary collection whose parts are determined by an equally conventional or arbitrary division. In such a case, e.g., a gallon of milk, the closed set of relations between whole and parts will be a no less arbitrary jumble of arithmetic ratios. But it may also happen that the whole one thinks of is some highly organized product of nature or art. Then the set of internal relations c is of the greatest significance. Each part is what it is in virtue of its functional relations to other parts; there is no part that is not determined by the exigences of other parts; and the whole possesses a certain inevitability in its unity, so that the removal of any part would destroy the whole, and the addition of any further part would be ludicrous. Such a whole is a structure. (Fs)

207a The parts of a whole may be things, bricks, timbers, glass, rubber, chrome. But the parts may also be activities, as in a song, a dance, a chorus, a symphony, a drama. Such a whole is dynamic materially. But dynamism may not be restricted to the parts. The whole itself may be self-assembling, d self-constituting; then it is formally dynamic. It is a dynamic structure. (Fs)-