Gregory Arago wrote:
> In the thread on emergent properties, the words 'hierarchy' and
> 'hierarchical' have come up. This seems to suggest something that
> comes before or after, below, higher or above, primary, secondary,
> etc. Could folks at ASA help by describing/explaining what kind of
> hierarchy or hierarchies are said to exist in scientific knowledge?
What I had in mind by my use of the term "hierarchy" was the movement
from interactions of mater and energy at the atomic level (I suppose
that quantum effects could be consider on their own separate level of
explanation) to increasingly larger and more complex entities.
Moving "upward" from the atomic level, there is the level of
molecular interactions and biochemistry, then the level of the
organism, the species, community, ecosystem, and Earth system. This
is obviously not the only heirarchy that one could suggest.
Also, the different levels are not sharply defined or distinguished
-- the boundaries are gradational. However, there are emergent
properties that can only be discussed and understood within a
particular level.
Keith
Keith B. Miller
Research Assistant Professor
Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
785-532-2250
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
Received on Mon May 8 11:52:19 2006
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