Order, Complexity, and Finality
Recent
Argument of design and fifth way of St. Thomas: similarities and differences.
summaryThe review of the modern argument of design to demonstrate the existence of God sample great differences with the fifth way of St. Thomas. They start from the order of nature, but their idea of finality and causality is different and they arrive at different results.
Author: Alberto Barbés
Towards a description of complexity (physics)
summaryThe concept of physical complexity is elusive. Some formalizations have been achieved, which are only valid for some specific cases of complexity. Several phenomena and the common notes that allow them to be classified as physically complex are presented.
Author: Diego Maza
Argument of design and fifth way of St. Thomas
summaryThe so-called argument of design is often identified with the fifth way of St. Thomas. However, they are different: both start from the natural order, but they focus on a different order subject , different subject of finality, different causality, and reach different conclusions: they are not comparable.
Author: Santiago Collado
A new challenge for the Science and Faith dialogue
Author: Héctor Mancini
What is determinism in physics?
summary:summary of the main positions that have been taken historically on determinism and indeterminism: within Aristotelian causality, within the Newtonian approach to the laws of nature, and within the formalist interpretation of the principle of indeterminacy and the physics of chaos, with some conclusive reflections on the interpretation of science...
Author: Santiago Collado, Héctor Velázquez
Chaos, complexity and self-organisation
summaryIn this seminar Professor Mancini has made an introduction to the scientific meaning and scope of concepts such as: "chance", "order" and "chaos", used by contemporary science to describe certain behaviors that appear in the so-called "complex systems". From them are derived others such as: self-organization, emergence of new properties or training of Structures, which often cause confusion or errors among non-scientific thinkers.
Author: Héctor L. Mancini
Evolutionary contingency and the purpose of the cosmos
summaryThis essay examines the standard understanding of biological evolution - causation plus selection - with its denial of the teleology of the evolutionary process, together with the problems of reconciling it with the divine governance of the world, and the alternative of admitting teleological processes that show the divine provident plan embedded in nature.
Author: Ernan McMullin
summaryThe concept of finality, finalistic dimensions of nature, existence and scope of natural finality, natural finality in the current worldview, teleology and transcendence, nature and providence, the intelligibility of nature, bibliography.
Author: Mariano Artigas
God, Chance and Purpose. Can God Have It Both Ways?
summaryA study on the role of chance in reality, its compatibility with natural laws and with God.
Author: Javier Sánchez Cañizares
The scientific search for order: miracles without an author?
summaryArticle that examines the recent discoveries in self-organisation processes of the subject, and discovers its philosophical and teleological aspect, very different from the merely materialistic one that is usually given to it. (Unpublished article from 1991).
Author: Mariano Artigas
The intelligibility of the natural world
summaryThree images of nature, intelligibility and causality, scientific truth, science and realism, the systemic perspective, the processual perspective, the dynamism of nature, physics and philosophy, cosmological categories, nature and transcendence.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summary: Study of the connection between God's intelligent plan for the world and its unravelling by means of the scientific business .
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryNature's Destiny, to my mind, is the best of the books that rely upon scientific evidence to argue in favour of the universe's being designed in order to produce life, including intelligent life. The evidence Denton amasses is impressive, and he is aware of the philosophical niceties of the argument, only some of which I have touched on here. I recommend the book highly to all who are interested in anthropic argumentation.
Author: Marie I. George (St. John's University, Jamaica, New York)
New advances in molecular biology: smart genes
summaryReflection, with regard to the intelligent genes in charge of development, of the need for a programmer of their behaviour.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Proteins you think. About award Nobel Prize for Medicine 1994
summaryOn 11 October 1994, the press reported the award of the award Nobel Prize in Medicine to Professors Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell for "the finding of G-proteins and their role in signal transmission in cells". This is a new breakthrough in molecular biology, which sample provides new insights into how life works in ever greater detail and provides new instructions for reflection on nature.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Teleology as a bridge between nature and transcendence
summaryEven when the relevance of natural teleology as a bridge between nature and theology is accepted, it is sometimes argued that the teleological argument is not a real rational proof and that we can only know divine design by revelation. This is obviously true if we think about particulars of the divine plan. But, if we only refer to its very existence, it seems possible to know it by rational argument. Scientific progress does not solve the basic problems, but if we reflect about it together with its presuppositions and implications, we can find a very well paved route for the rational knowledge of God the Creator.
Author: Mariano Artigas
The anthropic principle: science, philosophy or guesswork?
summary: Historic origin of the Anthropic principle and modern development of the basic idea.
Author: Mariano Artigas
The Mind of the Universe
Self-Organization and Divine Action
summary summary of the content of his book of the same title and a more detailed exposition of the content of the second part, related to the self-organisation of the subject, the meaning of this expression and the connection of the self-organising processes with the concept of teleology.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryThe impact of secular humanism on our understanding of human affairs, and the desacralization of contemporary culture can be considered as two sides of the same coin. Apparently they are closely related to the progress of empirical science. I am going to consider these topics under the perspective of the impact of scientific progress on them. In its beginnings, the new science was seen as a road from nature to its Maker, promoting natural theology. Later on, however, it was interpreted as favouring a "disenchantment" of the world. I will comment on some proposals of "reenchanting" the world, and will refer to my own proposal, which has recently been published in my last book, The Mind of the Universe, published last April 2000 by the Templeton Foundation Press.
Author: Mariano Artigas
The Mind of the Universe
Understanding Science and Religion
summaryThe paper examines the work of "disenchantment" of the world by modern science and the need to "re-enchant" the world, within a context of rationality. The bridges to achieve this result lie in the self-organisation of the subject as a reflection of the divine action that imprints a teleology on reality, the singularity of man that produces science and the recognition of the intelligibility of reality.
Author: Mariano Artigas