Assigned study points for Seminarians’ Week 2020 – Philosophy of Nature – SPCS

Kindly print and photocopy these before the class hours. During the class period, kindly study
individually and silently. Memorize. Understand.
From page 67 to 147 of the book used. The following are included within the scope of the midterm
exams. Study very well the following terms and enumerations:

1. cybernetic systems – automated complex systems found in living things which can sometimes be
misunderstood in the Cartesian mechanistic sense
2. subatomic particles – according to the “standard model”, these make up matter, with 6 types of
leptons or light particles, and 6 basic types of quarks, in two’s or three’s.
3. four fundamental interactions: strong nuclear (which keeps the atomic nucleus intact), weak
nuclear (which intervenes in phaenomena like radioactivity), electromagnetic (which acts in
between particles with an electric charge and is responsible for the cohesion of atoms and
molecules, and in general, of many properties of matter) and gravitational (which has important
effects in the attraction of bodies with appreciable mass)
4. stable particles of matter – especially referring to 3 particles – protons, neutrons and electrons –
the properties of which are 5 (mass, charge, spin, average life, modes of interaction)
5. atoms – in nature, there are 92 known forms of atoms. 2 atomic structures: nucleus (protons and
neutrons) and periphery (electrons)
6. molecules – are composed of atoms and their own structure and dynamism
7. macromolecules – a subtype of molecules, e.g., the biochemical components of living things:
proteins, nucleic acids, etc., again, with specific structures and dynamisms
8. mesophysical inorganic levels – are visible inorganic entities and aren’t too big
9. macrophysical inorganic levels – are visible inorganic entities which are big: e.g., in the
geophysical level (minerals), the earth altogether, made up of systems and subsystems
10. astrophysical levels – e.g., the stars
11. univocal sense – the sense is always the same
12. analogical sense – the sense is partly the same up to a point, and from then on, partly different
13. philosophical meaning of substantiality in nature (according to Mariano Artigas) – it revolves
around individuality and unity, and represents the existence of holistic systems which possess a
unitary mode of being; their components, although they partly maintain their own characteristics,
are found to be integrated in a new system which possesses a new unity, in which there are
emergent properties and a cooperative dynamism.
14. atomized representation of nature – this results from the denial of substantiality
15. David Hume (+1776) was an empiricist and radical anti-substantialist. For him. “substance” is
just a name we impose (for memory’s sake) on a collection of particular qualities found united by
the imagination. This comes from the empiricist theory of knowledge, according to which only
the qualities manifested in sensible experience have an objective value. It is tantamount to
substantializing the qualities, while denying the reality of the substance itself.
16. objectification and fixation – some other critiques to substance, a critique coming from
processualism, as if to affirm the existence of substances were equivalent to affirming the
existence of some subjects which are found outside the continuous flow of changes in nature.
17. changes in nature – natural change is the result of interactions, in which intervening dynamisms
are integrated and produce a common result. There are changes in nature, because natural systems
 are never found completely isolated or in a vacuum; and since the natural systems have their own
dynamism, they interact with one another.
18. process – a type of change that consists in a series of articulated steps that go from an initial
status or state up to a final state.
19. process – a set of streamlined phases of a natural phaenomenon or of an artificial operation
20. process – a step by step series of operations to achieve a certain objective
21. process – a transformation of a system
22. characteristics of natural processes: they have a high level of unity and of directionality, in their
starting point as well as in their end point and in their development.
23. dynamic patterns – they guide the development and the results of natural processes
24. information in 3 contexts: context 1 – in ordinary life and in computer sciences, information is
related to the communication of messages; context 2 – the theory of information studies
technological aspects of transmitting and dealing with messages, using mathematical concepts
related to the theory of probability; context 3 – in the exact sciences, there is an emerging concept
of information used that is approximately equivalent to that of a program which guides natural
activity: this started in biology when the existence of genetic information was discovered… In
philosophy, we shall use this third context of the notion of information.
25. 6 typical elements of information: signs, code, storage, communication, interpretation,
integration.
26. 2 types of dynamic patterns: dynamic laws and informational patterns
27. dynamic laws – represent the behavior of diverse systems in certain conditions; in every area of
science, there are many dynamic laws
28. informational patterns – these correspond to the development of more complex processes in
which there is a sequence of successive states and suppose a high level of organization;
informational patterns are instructions which guide the unfolding of natural dynamism. E.g., the
genetic information, which is an informational pattern stored in a structural pattern (the spatial
structure of the deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA) and guides the unfolding of an entire set of
particular dynamic patterns (the processes of transcription and translation of the DNA), which, in
turn, give way to the production of new structural patterns (proteins) which, again, unfold other
dynamic patterns (the processes where proteins intervene) etc. So, in genetic information,
dynamism and structuring are interwoven through informational patterns.
29. synergy – cooperative action of many components
30. being in potency and being in act – the theory by which how Aristotle attempted to interweave
being and change
31. terms by which the dynamic aspects in nature are designated: “change”, “movement”,
“transformation”, “mutation”, “process”
32. 2 basic types of changes in nature: substantial change and accidental change
33. 3 types of accidental changes: a. local change – change of place, also called “local movement”,
“movement”, “displacement”; b. quantitative change – also called “augmentation” or
“disminution”; c. qualitative change – also called “alteration”
34. Aristotle’s “being in act” – to possess a determination
35. Aristotle’s “being in potency” – to be halfway between non-being and to be in act; a real capacity
to arrive at being in act
36. Aristotle’s definition of “change”: “the act of being (ens) in potency insofar as it is in potency”
(Physics, III, 1, 201 a 10); “a kind of actuality, or actuality that is described, hard to attain, but not
incapable of existing” (Physics, 2, 202 a 1 – 3); “there are as many types of movement or change
as there are meanings of the word is” (Physics, 1, 201, a 8 – 9).
37. Types of potency and act in relation to being: passive potency and primary act.
38. Types of potency and act in relation to doing: active potency and secondary act.
39. “disenchantment of nature” – a mindset according to which, before, that which couldn’t me
explained in nature or in man’s surroundings was thought of as magical, mysterious, and yet, with
the advent and advancement of science, almost everything now has an explanation
40. homeostasis – the maintenance of the internal conditions of the living things through the
exchanges with the external means.
41. Self-regulation – is the term correlative to homeostasis (aside from directionality), through
feedback processes
42. Feedback – it happens in nature when the state of the system is controlled through regulating
mechanisms
43. Physiological homeostasis – the tendency of an organism to maintain the physiological conditions
in the face of fluctuating environmental conditions
44. Developmental homeostasis – the tendency of developmental patterns of an organism to produce
a normal phaenotype despite fluctuations in the circumstances.
45. biosynthesis – a process through which biological materials are constructed from the components
that arrive at the cell
46. functionality – the activity of the parts in function of the whole
47. morphogenesis – refers to the formation of unitary systems and of their parts
48. 5 processes unfolding from the information from the genetic code: transcription, translation,
regulation, duplication, error correction.
49. cyclical processes – are a type of unitary processes, developing in periodical temporal sequences,
showing a type of unity found at the basis of all nature’s activity
50. chronobiology – the study of biological rhythms
51. 3 successive levels of complexity in the natural order: a. structuring, b. patterns, c. organization
52. configuration – spatial patterns
53. rhythms – temporal patterns
54. 3 levels of nature from the perspective of its organization: a. physico-chemical level, b.
astrophysical level, c. biological level
55. 2 aspects of the unity of nature in its double aspect of dynamism and structure: a. unity of
composition, b. unity of dynamism
56. ecology – the scientific study of ecosystems; it is also an interdisciplinary branch of science
57. ecosystem -a natural system that reaches to the set of living things that form a certain unity of
interdependence
58. 2 motives for promoting respect for nature: theoretical and practical
59. extension – spatial extension (magnitude)
60. duration – temporal extension
61. Aristotle’s definition of “matter” – that from which something is made
62. Aristotle’s definition of “prime matter” – the ultimate subject from which things are made of
63. matter – the principle of individuation natural substances