has power but should not project anthropomorphic power to matter. But, naturalism, i.e., anti-anthropomorphism, has since acquired a different thrust, in an ironic
twist of the first order, that the sound naturalistic idea of physical or nomic necessity
(we no longer have to imagine the power of wind in Anemoi, the wind gods)
became physical determination or governing (man has no free will), and all laws
became governing laws. Avoiding anthropomorphic thinking in materialism has
become, rather than viewing man as master of his home, instead, viewing man to be
powerless in his existence. “…in first stripping away from material objects their
anthropogenic power as Hume argued, [materialism turned] 180 degrees to impart
to material objects that very anthropogenic power so that matter can govern over
[man in] a causally closed world, [as] Collingwood (1940) argued, ‘The so-called
materialism which was the favorite metaphysical doctrine of these
anti-metaphysicians was in consequence only in name a repudiation of anthropomorphism; really it was anthropomorphic at the core.’ ” [10].
In other words, causal closure is the presupposition that the universe is a causally
closed world in which all physical laws are governing equation laws. Causal closure
is the scientific version of omnipotent God.
My analysis in this chapter shows that this is simply not true. The first law
acquires governing equation status only for a restricted class of problems in the form
of Eq. (196). The more general equation Eq. (199/111) inferred from the first law is
not a governing equation, as _
W shaft cannot be reduced to or not yet formulated into a
law of causally closed form. Should a scientist succeed in achieving the “impossible”, all patent offices in the world will be closed. Until that should happen, we have
to think and operate, as Polanyi and Collingwood did and every common man and
woman does, with the presupposition that the world is not causally closed.
10.6 Engineering for Efficiency
Everything under the sun is subject to physical necessity, but the world is not
causally closed. Every process is subject to physical necessity, but only natural
processes (thermodynamically speaking, spontaneous nonreversible processes) are
determined by laws of physics and chemistry. Laws have only the passive power of
physical or nomic necessity of efficient causation, not the active power of causal
necessity of efficacious causation. Every event in the Poincare range is subject to
physical necessity, but only the spontaneous event is governed (more precisely,
description of which provided by laws) while all the rest, to greater or smaller
extent, are created by contrivance managing actions.
Heat transfer from a hot body to a cold body is a physical necessity, as well as
the great discovery of Mayer and Joule [11] that heat and mechanical energy are
always correlated, i.e., conservation of energy prevails in their gain–loss: one gain
is coupled with the other loss and vice versa. Mayer–Joule’s achievement led to the
notion of energy as the capacity for doing work. But, that is misleading and the real
reason for heat or energy’s capacity for doing work is found in the Carnot’s earlier
10.5 Determination and Causal Closure
289
twist of the first order, that the sound naturalistic idea of physical or nomic necessity
(we no longer have to imagine the power of wind in Anemoi, the wind gods)
became physical determination or governing (man has no free will), and all laws
became governing laws. Avoiding anthropomorphic thinking in materialism has
become, rather than viewing man as master of his home, instead, viewing man to be
powerless in his existence. “…in first stripping away from material objects their
anthropogenic power as Hume argued, [materialism turned] 180 degrees to impart
to material objects that very anthropogenic power so that matter can govern over
[man in] a causally closed world, [as] Collingwood (1940) argued, ‘The so-called
materialism which was the favorite metaphysical doctrine of these
anti-metaphysicians was in consequence only in name a repudiation of anthropomorphism; really it was anthropomorphic at the core.’ ” [10].
In other words, causal closure is the presupposition that the universe is a causally
closed world in which all physical laws are governing equation laws. Causal closure
is the scientific version of omnipotent God.
My analysis in this chapter shows that this is simply not true. The first law
acquires governing equation status only for a restricted class of problems in the form
of Eq. (196). The more general equation Eq. (199/111) inferred from the first law is
not a governing equation, as _
W shaft cannot be reduced to or not yet formulated into a
law of causally closed form. Should a scientist succeed in achieving the “impossible”, all patent offices in the world will be closed. Until that should happen, we have
to think and operate, as Polanyi and Collingwood did and every common man and
woman does, with the presupposition that the world is not causally closed.
10.6 Engineering for Efficiency
Everything under the sun is subject to physical necessity, but the world is not
causally closed. Every process is subject to physical necessity, but only natural
processes (thermodynamically speaking, spontaneous nonreversible processes) are
determined by laws of physics and chemistry. Laws have only the passive power of
physical or nomic necessity of efficient causation, not the active power of causal
necessity of efficacious causation. Every event in the Poincare range is subject to
physical necessity, but only the spontaneous event is governed (more precisely,
description of which provided by laws) while all the rest, to greater or smaller
extent, are created by contrivance managing actions.
Heat transfer from a hot body to a cold body is a physical necessity, as well as
the great discovery of Mayer and Joule [11] that heat and mechanical energy are
always correlated, i.e., conservation of energy prevails in their gain–loss: one gain
is coupled with the other loss and vice versa. Mayer–Joule’s achievement led to the
notion of energy as the capacity for doing work. But, that is misleading and the real
reason for heat or energy’s capacity for doing work is found in the Carnot’s earlier
10.5 Determination and Causal Closure
289