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Saturday, May 01, 2021

Some Thoughts on Issues Arising from Leibniz' Monadology

 One of the principles of Leibniz' great Monadology is the proposition that lower or simple monads have no "windows through which anything could come in or go out."  However they do possess confused perceptions of what is near to them:

7. Further, there is no way of explaining how a Monad can be altered in quality or internally changed by any other created thing; since it is impossible to change the place of anything in it or to conceive in it any internal motion which could be produced, directed, increased or diminished therein, although all this is possible in the case of compounds, in which there are changes among the parts. The Monads have no windows, through which anything could come in or go out. Accidents cannot separate themselves from substances nor go about outside of them, as the ‘sensible species’ of the Scholastics used to do. Thus neither substance nor accident can come into a Monad from outside.

Now our representations of cells is that "things," i.e. proteins, do come in and go out continuously via the cellular surface gates. And indeed that there are protein enzymatic engines of ATP supplying internal energy to all cells. So in Leibniz' Monadology the study of these changes would have to place cells and their proteins including those signaling molecules Intergrins that permit cellular communication as mere ephemera that come into and out of being, constantly being reduced and recreated as constituents of "cellular automata."

61. And compounds are in this respect analogous with [symbolisent avec] simple substances. For all is a plenum (and thus all matter is connected together) and in the plenum every motion has an effect upon distant bodies in proportion to their distance, so that each body not only is affected by those which are in contact with it and in some way feels the effect of everything that happens to them, but also is mediately affected by bodies adjoining those with which it itself is in immediate contact. Wherefore it follows that this inter-communication of things extends to any distance, however great. And consequently every body feels the effect of all that takes place in the universe, so that he who sees all might read in each what is happening everywhere, and even what has happened or shall happen, observing in the present that which is far off as well in time as in place: σύµπνοια πάντα [sympnoia panta], as Hippocrates said. But a soul can read in itself only that which is there represented distinctly; it cannot all at once unroll everything that is enfolded in it, for its complexity is infinite.

62. Thus, although each created Monad represents the whole universe, it represents more distinctly the body which specially pertains to it, and of which it is the entelechy; and as this body expresses the whole universe through the connexion of all matter in the plenum, the soul also represents the whole universe in representing this body, which belongs to it in a special way.

And yet that which separates a simple lower monad absolutely from human monads is our unique ability to mirror the necessary existence of the ongoing potential of universal perfection.

   29. But it is the knowledge of necessary and eternal truths that distinguishes us from the mere animals and gives us Reason and the sciences, raising us to the knowledge of ourselves and of God. And it is this in us that is called the rational soul or mind.

So as I have looked to Riemannian surface biophysical models in the past with the "poles" of branchpoints being proteins, it must be kept in mind that these are not lower living Monads but mere chemical compound constituents that come into and out of being. And therein lies the research of the division of the living from the non living. This particular connection is the most necessary aspect of progress in biophysics. For exploring these interconnected protein functions will make all advances of biophysics quest to extend our life and "health-spans" possible, in the analogous manner in which exploring the energetics of elemental constituents of matter will propel our species into space colonization.

Further, it is the division of non-monadic elements into groupings of Vernadsky's domains of inorganic, organic and noetic and their potential interactions that should inform the metatheoretical design for scientific research. For instance, in the domain of the noetic must be included the philosophic purpose for setting research agendas. Is it a requirement that we by necessity must increase the secular healthy lifespan of humanity? How is this to be achieved per capita and overall? Does the defense of society against inevitable impacts from meteors and comets figure in? 

Moreover, it is the historical quality of hypothesis that mediates future deployment of noetic resources. In this regard, these hypotheses "live" beyond their attachment to being produced by an historical person. Among these higher hypotheses, Plato's demonstration of the universality of geometrical knowledge triggered a proven truth about the necessary changes of governance for the survival of society. That is, the breakdown of the irrational barriers to advancement and perfection of knowledge imposed by arbitrary rule by oligarchical families maintained by usurious financial interests of pantheons of pagan cults.  

 



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