Autor: Byrne, Patrick H.

Buch: Beitrag zur Konferenz: World Views: Environment, Culture, Religion 7: 1-2 (March 2003)

Titel: Ecology, Economy and Redemption as Dynamic: The Contributions of Jane Jacobs and Bernard Lonergan

Stichwort: Schemes of Recurrence (Ü. G. Sala: Rekursive Schemen)

Kurzinhalt: By "scheme of recurrence" Lonergan means a series of events (or "operations") that are intelligibly linked together by natural laws of physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Schemes of recurrence can be "represented by the series of conditionals, If ...

Textausschnitt: (1) Schemes of Recurrence

1a Lonergan remarks that the focus of Darwin's evolutionary was the gradual accumulation of small "sensible qualities," (1992, 290) that is to say, observable and describable phenotypic characters. By way of contrast, the focus of Lonergan's account is what he calls "schemes of recurrence." The small variations of classical Darwinism do not merely pile up. Rather, scientifically they must be understood in their intelligible relationships to the internal and external functioning of the organism and its environment:
These combinations of variations ... are relevant to schemes of recurrence. For the concrete living of any plant or animal may be regarded as a set of ... recurrent operations ... Within such schemes the plant or animal is only a component. The whole schematic circle of [operations] does not occur [solely] within the living thing, but goes beyond it into the environment (1992, 156)

1b By "scheme of recurrence" Lonergan means a series of events (or "operations") that are intelligibly linked together by natural laws of physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Schemes of recurrence can be "represented by the series of conditionals, If A occurs, B occurs; if B occurs, C occurs; if C occurs, ... A will recur" (1992, 141), where the intelligible connection between the occurrence of A and B, between B and C, etc. is determined by some law of physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Simple examples of schemes of recurrence include the hydrogen-helium fusion cycles in the interiors of stars, the Krebs cycles in cells that continually regenerate energetic ATP from depleted ADP, and the mutual regeneration of atmospheric CO2 and O2 by animals and plants. Lonergan goes on to note that schemes of recurrence are usually far more complex, involving intricate sub-loops and alternative pathways. (Fs)

1c Lonergan's focus on schemes of recurrence places emphasis on two important facts. First, the evolving unit is not a random material variation of the organism (e.g., longer limb) but a way of living (i.e., an intelligible functioning). Second, the environment is not merely a passive stage onto which an individual organism with a variant feature is placed. The schemes of the environment are always already implicated in every organism's functioning. (Fs)