Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 15:47:21 -0600
Subject: evolutionary dialectics


Barkley wrote:
The point is that while on the one hand there
really is not all that much difference in the hardware
between us and chimps, there is a lot of difference in
the software...
Surely a quantitative change has become a qualitatie one
here.
---
Lisa replies:  I suppose you can call it that if you want, but my
point is that I don't see how calling it Q/Q or 'dialectic' adds any
understanding or description or anything.  

Is there some way you could explain to me the value of this Q/Q idea?
 I do want to know.  One of the problems I see with it is deciding
what to call a "qualitative" difference, because any one example can
be looked at in several different ways.  I could argue equally
reasonably that many primates do commit murder and the human ability
to kill more faster is just a matter of degree.  I wonder if the
perception of large differences in degree just start to feel like a
whole different thing because of the difference in impact on humans
or something like that.

Otherwise, what are the criteria for determining what is a different
"quality" ?  Go back to the famously boiling water.  What is the
"qualitative" difference between water liquid and water vapor?  There
is a different distance between molecules, and they have different
amounts of kinetic energy.  And why is it that the sudden "phase
change" occurs at 212 degrees?  If I remember correctly, that is the
point at which molecular kinetic energy is sufficient to overcome the
attractive forces between molecules that was sticking them so close
together in the first place.

What makes this a "qualitative" difference?  The vapor does have the
different property of being compressible, variable in volume
according to pressure, but that is just a function of the distance
between the molecules, which itself is a result of heat and pressure.
And of course it is still water.

So, what is it I'm not getting?  Or maybe "dialectics" is just
another word for trying to be open to the possibility of
"interconnections", in case they may occur, and to look at a problem
>from several different angles?  I.e. to do good science.

Lisa


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