Autor: Vertin, Michael -- Mehrere Autoren: Lonergan Workshop, Volume 8

Buch: Lonergan's "Three Basic Questions" and a Philosophy of Philosophies

Titel: Byrne, Patrick H., Insight and the Retrieval of Nature

Stichwort: Lonergan: Natur; das Natürliche - Unnatürliche; natürlich: Bestimmung im Hinblick auf: erklärende Korrelationen; schemes of recurrance; Universum

Kurzinhalt: That is, the question, "What is natural?" can be answered only by first specifying, "Natural with respect to what?" Hence, we may ask what is natural with respect to: (1) an explanatory correlation, (2) ...

Textausschnitt: 2.7 The Natural and the Unnatural

48a Let us now summarize the foregoing by asking, "What is natural and what is unnatural?" The term, "natural," has an intrinsic relativity.1 That is, the question, "What is natural?" can be answered only by first specifying, "Natural with respect to what?" Hence, we may ask what is natural with respect to: (1) an explanatory correlation, (2) a scheme of recurrence, (3) an explanatory species, an ecology, (4) or the universe as a whole. (Fs)
(1) Relative to an explanatory correlation, any set of variables which are actually correlated in the way the correlation prescribes, and under the conditions it dictates, is natural. Thus, for example, relative to Galileo's law of falling bodies, the pairs, (distance = 4 ft., time = 0.5 sees.; distance = 16 ft., time = 1 sec; distance = 64 ft., time = 2 sees.), are naturally occurring dimensions of a body's fall, while the pair (distance = 4 ft., time = 4 sees.) is not. Of course, were we actually to observe this last pair, we would not say that this falling body "violated nature" or was "unnatural." We would spontaneously search for a change in the conditions affecting the correlation or, failing in this search, conclude that Galileo's understanding of the correlation itself was simply wrong. Our notion of the normative intelligibility of nature is that strong. (Fs)

(2) The nature of any scheme of recurrence is for it to function regularly in its pattern. Relative to an oxidative phosphorylation cycle, the regular recurrence of its sequence of five stages is natural-is its "immanent nature." Relative to its functioning, the regular supplies of energetic electrons from NAD-H2, of oxygen recipients of lower-energy electrons, of phosphate and X provide a natural environment for its functioning. Moreover, there is not just one way to provide those conditions, but many,2 and relative to the oxidative phosphorylation cycle, all such ways of providing these conditions are perfectly natural. What is unnatural to it is any set of conditions which permanently interrupt that cycle: for example, the cessation of oxygen supply, or the presence of potassium cyanide. (Fs)

49a On the other hand, relative to other chemical cycles of oxygen or potassium cyanide, occurrences which terminate oxidative phosphorylation cycles can also be perfectly natural. These occurrences are just as naturally intelligible, relative to the sets of explanatory conjugates and correlations which inform them. If carbon monoxide is introduced, oxygen will combine with it far more frequently than with 2H+; relative to oxidative phosphorylation cycles, this interruption is a "violent and unnatural occurrence"; relative to carbon-oxygen cycles, it is not. (Fs)

(3) What holds for schemes of recurrence also holds for their assemblies into more complex unities, including explanatory genera and species of things, their developmental sequences, "flexible circles of ranges of schemes of recurrence," and ecologies. Each has a range of recurrent functioning, however complex. Each range of recurrence has its conditions. Any sequence of events is "natural" if it is part of that conditioned range of recurrence-even if it happens only once in an organism's lifetime, or if it occurs in one out of a million instances of that species. In general one can say that any sequence of occurrences which serves to terminate unalterably some part of the range of recurrent functioning (for example, an unremitting fever, or a myocardial infarct) is "unnatural" relative to the assembly of schemes it impairs. Yet precise knowledge of whether or not such a sequence of events is natural is to be had only from detailed explanatory investigations, which relate actual occurrences to patterns made recurrent by the particular combination of explanatory conjugates. Likewise, all the sets of conditions which are compatible with such natural recurrent or developmental functioning are "natural" conditions, or natural environments, relative to them; those which are incompatible are "unnatural" environments for them. (Fs)

(4) Relative to the whole universe, every sequence of occurrences is natural which is in accord with combinations of explanatory correlations, and their realization in accord with dynamically shifting probabilities. In short, relative to the universe, every sequence of events which accords with generalized emergent probability is natural. This is indeed a vast range of occurrences, but by no means an arbitrary or unlimited range. (Fs)