©1999,M.Bettoni,CZM,Fachhochschule beider Basel Von: Steven Hoath <hoathsb@email.uc.edu>
An: Multiple recipients of list <kant-l@bucknell.edu>
Betreff: Re: Opinion poll: CpR B XVI
Datum: Mittwoch, 13. Januar 1999 16:34
The dichotomy raised by Marco Bettoni is intriguing. Anyone who has read a
scientific article or applied for a scientific grant knows that publication
or funding depends upon adopting a fiction. The fiction is that reality
can be described independently of the Observer. This is Paradigm A.
Where this Paradigm breaks down is at the edges: Not merely in quantum
physics where the intrusion of the Observer perturbs the measurement
process but in everyday life. Humberto Maturana claimed that the nervous
system is organizationally closed and self referential. Yet the
autopoietic system (the organism) is structurally coupled to the
environment. How does this coupling occur? Even more obvious is the fact
that I perceive myself as an object in the universe. But as Kant said, I
can know even myself only as appearance. There are no "things in
themselves" not even my body. How does this happen?
What I would suggest is that what Kant is describing is essentially a
boundary of sorts...a place of conformity and dynamic connection between
extremes. It is a philosophical golden mean. Anytime we introduce the
Observer into our scientific considerations we are going to need to a
Kantian approach. In this view, Kant is highly relevant for science and
society today.
Steven Hoath
***********************************************
Steven B. Hoath, MD
Skin Sciences Institute
Children's Hospital Research Foundation
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio 45267-0541
hoathsb@uc.edu
"Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe."