Elements for an Argumentative Method of Interpretation

Philosophy

/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 1/19 Home About Anthropology | General Interest | History | Language & Literature | Sociotainment | Social Sciences | Full Text Books | Editorial Academia Debate | Affordable Housing Forum | Asia Global | Dilemma's Rechtsstaat | Europe Generations | ISSA | Orbis | Recht te Utrecht | ZorgLab ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation by: María G. Navarro University of Amsterdam No comments yet When are we, in fact, arguing? Even one and the same author may offer more than one definition of what he understands by argumentation: this is partly because the problem of argumentation is not confined to a single area of knowledge or of practical life. Definitions of argumentation are as varied as the different positions taken on the question of what exactly we do when we argue. Be that as it may, we are struck by the fact that the problem of argumentation (above all in its application to hypothetic-inductive methods) has not been analysed as a problem linked to interpretation. In this paper the hypothesis that it is in philosophical hermeneutics that the foundations of the so-called speculative theories of argumentation are to be found is presented. To show the consistency of this hypothesis an analysis of concepts (plausibility, dialectic, rhetoric, heuristic reasoning, and reasoning topic) will be presented in order to show the hermeneutical basis of developments in the field of argumentation theories. The link between argumentation and interpretation is clear for two reasons: firstly, because if 'argumentation is one of the activities characteristic of rational life'(Corcoran 1989, pp. 17), this is owing to the fact that the radical necessity of interpreting the political, social, historical, institutional and personal environment in which our existence takes place (and not only our own environment anchored in the present but the past and future too, whether we know it or not), makes argumentation another means to govern that fundamental and primordial disposition of human existence which avails itself of interpretation as both a means and an end. The second reason is that, from a logical point of view, the application of argumentation to hypothetic-deductive and hypothetic-inductive methods goes without saying, insofar as both methods have conjectural starting points. We can distinguish this second reason, which is logical, from the first one, which points to ontological and historical dimensions. Defining argumentation as being involved in the reduction of new problems to other old ones which have been resolved, Corcoran (1989) combines the strictly logical and the ontological. But, also according to the same author, neither deductive nor inductive methods are truly methods leading to the discovery of hypotheses. 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 2/19 Consequently, there are auxiliary procedures for discovering hypotheses which could also be used to discover chains of reasoning. These avenues of hypothesis discovery are really heuristic avenues, that is, they form part of an ars inveniendi which is rooted in an ars interpretandi in contrast to the ars indicandi, because unlike the latter they do not conform to demonstrative logic. Thus, for example, the method by analogy is a heuristic procedure. Applying interpretative or conjectural procedures may lead to the production of proofs when, for example, a heuristic procedure is used that consists of developing, from an originary hypothesis, arguments which are confirmed as true. This is how interpretations and conjectures based on petitio principii may become proofs. All of this gives us an idea of the epistemic potential of interpretative processes in their heuristic dimension. According to Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, the heuristic function usually estimates the cost of a solution which begins from the state in the node n' (Russell and Norvig 2003) and which, no matter how one looks at it, manages to construct a function by learning from experience, since every optimal solution of a given problem provides elements or examples enabling the function h(n) to be learnt. In other words, each example is made up of a solved path state, which is why it is said that an heuristic strategy – whether subsequently applied to a piece of reasoning – uses knowledge of a problem in a sense that goes beyond the definition of the problem in itself. This strategy brings into play learning and reasoning modality that is not deductive but rather inductive. Inductive learning can only take place if information relevant (for whatever reason) to the development and description of the problem is offered to the system which is to carry out the calculation. Often, however, when this procedure is deployed, the conclusions obtained do not properly follow from the argumentation. It is also common, when the heuristic and exploratory interpretative procedure is not carried out rigorously, to blame it for logical limitations that do not stem from it, but rather from the logic-discursive procedure with which we conduct the arguments. When this procedure is not carried out rigorously, we invalidate the heuristic procedure (such as extracting from the petitio principii other true and conclusive propositions that let us take the petitio as a proof), transforming it instead into a mere fallacy or erroneous conclusion – which is due either to an erroneous chain of reasoning or to basing the force of the reasoning on a mistaken interpretation of the implicit sense of that petition of principle. All these factors seem to call into question the appropriateness of the linear model based on mechanical reasoning and learning and even on conceptions of language as a mere instrument for representing knowledge. These conceptions of heuristic and hermeneutic reasoning are highlighted, for example, in the design of intelligent environments, which requires us to investigate the cognitive processes involved in reasoning – a highly topical field in Artificial Intelligence. In this field, logical agents are no longer designed with regard to language programmes based on prototypical reasoning patterns of propositional logic (for example, following the development of patterns of inference that can be applied to derive chains of conclusions to lead us to a desired objective). On the contrary, nowadays more complex models are taken into account, such as, for example, those that consist of the description of actions for carrying out calculations and interpretations of situations in which a possibility axiom is given (which gives an idea of when it is possible or necessary to carry out a determinate action) and an effect axiom (which gives an idea of what happens when an action is performed or of what changes are possible as a result of carrying out an action). In spite of these connections between heuristic and hermeneutic reasoning, the history of hermeneutics, insofar as epistemic procedure is concerned, has taken the connection as a case of simple misunderstanding (a somewhat blunt way of expressing the problem we referred to above). The function of hermeneutics (clearly epistemic, in my opinion) has been said to be simply that of a preliminary study for arriving at a correct interpretation or understanding in cases where there is something confused, unclear, unintelligible or misunderstood – and that 'something' generally had to be made intelligible, clear and perceptible. 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 3/19 However, the very fact of asserting that heuristic procedures – in one way or another always interpretative – are linked with argumentational ones weakens the idea that perhaps there are arguments that give rise to cogent reasoning per se. Normally a piece of reasoning is considered cogent per se if its conclusion follows logically from the premises it has provided. But this requisite may be present and yet appear in such a context that people do not recognise the consistency of the conclusion, either because they do not accept the premises used or because they are simply ignorant of them. This should give us an idea of how far the interpretative and the strictly logical processes converge in practice and to what extent they are indistinguishable and undifferentiated due to the fact that, in effect, in practical life they are not distinct or differentiated. So, in spite of logical accuracy in the chain of reasoning, an argument may not be a proof for one person or group of persons in a specific context, and will in such a case be judged simply as a petition of principle. Sometimes this phenomenon (a logical one, in which the pragmatic elements inherent in reasoning play a part) is confused with a problem relating to the use of erroneous interpretations. In other words, a petition of principle is confused with a mere interpretation lacking epistemic or logical value. In my opinion, this phenomenon, which occurs so frequently in communication in our shared everyday life, stems from this reason: a correct argument is not merely the result of an inferential process; thus, even an adequate interpretation does not always appear in the form of a cogent argument. Our expectation of being successful in our interpretations is logical. This can be appreciated when we consider how annoying it can be when our interlocutor formulates interpretations that are manifestly erroneous on the basis of events, texts, stories, etc. which ought to give rise to different interpretations. We are used to linking interpretative processes with logics or, at least, with certain aspects of logic which, although we treat them somewhat flexibly in casual conversation or, in general, in our shared everyday life, we cannot nevertheless refrain from demanding or assuming in all our speech acts. Moreover, it must be pointed out that the fact that we discredit our interlocutor by saying: 'That's just your interpretation!', merely underlines what was said above, namely, that the reason why this is precisely a form of discrediting or reproach comes from the fact that a question whose elucidation ought to lead to some kind of reasoning communion has been made to depend on the interlocutor's subjectivity. When this happens, we speak of erroneous interpretations, that is, interpretations that fail to fulfil their heuristic function adequately and which are, for that reason, as illogical as they are personal or subjective. We maintain, all things considered, that one of the key arguments concerning the connection between interpretation and argumentation lies in the fact that the existence of both premises and conclusion(s) has a purely functional character in argumentational processes. This is precisely because arguments have an interpretative scope and other propositions, conclusions or interpretations are induced from them, which means they are all, from this point of view, provisional. Corcoran has referred to this problem, pointing out that it is particularly striking that many sceptical philosophers or even epistemological nihilists have concluded that no proposition is known to be true in itself. However, few of them have shown, on the basis of this assertion, that what it really indicates is that no reasoning is known to be valid if we think that in order to establish the validity of an argument it is necessary to hold other arguments to be valid, which would imply that there would always have to be some necessarily valid argument, in order for the rest to be considered valid. Every argument is specific and singular, that is, there is no outline or a priori of argumentation. This implies that every inductive process is based on specific arguments and, consequently, supported by heuristic procedures of a hermeneutic kind. If this is true, it seems reasonable to widen the investigative domain of the discipline of logic to include the strictly hermeneutic problem. On the basis of what has been said above, we believe that Corcoran (1989) gives another tentative definition of argumentation more consistent and complete than the previous one. It incorporates all the problems 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 4/19 mentioned up to now as it considers that an argument is a system of three parts: a group of propositions called the group of premises, a single proposition called the conclusion and a discourse called the chain of reasoning. At this point we must recognise that the formulation of arguments, both by hypothetico-inductive and hypothetico-deductive methods, employs premises that are taken as valid or other arguments whose validity is taken as demonstrated. In general, these are the plausible arguments and propositions which Aristotle considered worthy of consideration or trust – to the extent that they had a good reputation. In this sense, Vega has defined the endoxa as 'dialectic propositions which are more or less accepted or acceptable' (Vega 1993, p. 6)[i]. As we shall see later, an argumentation theory in the philosophical sense cannot be applied to political, epistemological, ontological, ethical, etc., problems without being fully integrated into the specific topic. It is this consideration that reveals the close connection between the argumentational and interpretative processes because, in simple terms, the interpretative procedure begins where deductive reasoning is not applicable, that is, where measurement exists only in terms of degrees of plausibility. Vega expresses this problem in the following terms: In other words: for an argument < {α1, α2,... αk}, αn > to be truly a proof, its power of acceptability or plausibility must be greater than that of the bare proposition αn in the given discursive framework[ii]. (Vega 1993, p. 14) Whether an argument is plausible or not is a problem that depends on discursive frameworks, that is, on pragmatic and historical contexts whose meaning can be defined as the final, but provisional, product of the complex logic of interpretation. Schnädelbach expresses the thesis that we are attempting to sketch out in the following terms: If discursive rationality is essentially a matter of the faculty of judging (...), the context of criticism and justification can never be bound completely by rules, even when it must follow (...) certain fundamental rules (for example, those of grammar or logical consistency). Consequently, a logic of argumentation as a purely axiomatic-deductive theory will never be possible (...)[iii]. (Schnädelbach 2000, p. 409) Marafioti, Zamudio and Rubione (1997) consider that some of the main approaches to the problem of argumentation have taken insufficient account of aspects such as the influence social institutions exert upon argumentational discourse, suggesting that a sociology of argumentation is needed. It is equally important that the construction of argumentation theories acknowledges the value of studying argumentation from a psycholinguistic standpoint in which the subjects under investigation would include problems such as the psychogenesis of argumentational competence and the shared contextual assumptions that give rise to inferences. The definitions of argumentation presented in the previous paragraph have been developed in the history of argumentation theories by approaches such as that of Anscombre & Ducrot, for whom argumentation is a communicative act in which an utterance is presented with the aim of supporting a conclusion and the application of other utterances may contribute to its argumentational force (a property of exclusively discursive argumentation, since not all arguments used have the same force or the same argumentational weight). These other utterances are aimed at supporting the same conclusion or another one which, appearing more obvious in a determinate context, could strengthen, or even appear as a proof of, the conclusion to be debated. Victoria Escandell (1999, p. 109) has expressed this well, pointing out that with respect to the problem of argumentation, in contrast to the English pragmatic tradition, which is more interested 'in emphasising the character of action underlying all linguistic communication' the French tradition (which 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 5/19 includes Anscombre & Ducrot both in their individual work and in their collective work) has paid more attention to the principles which determine the argumentational effects of utterances than to the linguistic context itself in which these take place, since it is true that, in communicative practice, utterances that can be characterised as arguments deviate from the classic discursive laws of logic. All of this reveals the existence of argumentational operators and connectives so subtle or complex that they may be present in texts whose function, in principle, is not argumentational but rather poetic, narrative, descriptive, etc. And this is true without even taking into account the Habermasian standpoint regarding speech acts as triggers of the pragmatic units; in certain social and political contexts, these units animate the argumentational power of texts independently of semantic content originally established with the aim of obtaining determinate levels of validity. If I am not mistaken, all of this strengthens Ducrot's standpoint regarding the pre-eminence of the argumentational function of language over the other functions, to the extent that it underlies all the rest. The works of Anscombre & Ducrot are relevant in this respect, above all in relation to the following point: although utterances can be argumentationally oriented by means of formal procedures (their contribution being a complex semantics that embraces pragmatics), their interpretation seems to depend on specific formal means. Thus, in communicative processes, interpretation represents the other side or inverse argumentation and can be explained as the cognitive process by means of which the receiver distinguishes the argumentational connectives and operators and so comes to establish a final value in the equation of meaning. However, this definition is still excessively semantic, since it is true that in most cases we find that both the arguments and the conclusions are implicit, and therefore the task consists generally in knowing how to interpret the argumentational orientation of a discourse in pragmatic and semantic terms rather than in meticulously distinguishing its operators and connectives in formal terms. One could derive a corollary regarding the research hypothesis of the authors: namely, that the interpretative processes realise other dimensions of discursive reasoning such as a comprehensive discernment of the situation, an appropriate assessment of the topoi explicitly and/or implicitly employed, as well as rhetorical techniques and the dialectic limits used to orient the discourse or utterance in an argumentational way, in order to show, at one time, the probability of a particular argument or, at another time, to argue against it, etc. Anscombre & Ducrot's standpoint is notably summed up in this passage: Our thesis is that in language there are restrictions that determine this presentation. For an utterance E1 to be able to count as an argument in favour of E2 (conclusion) it is not enough that E1 actually does give reasons for accepting E2. The linguistic structure of E1 must also satisfy certain conditions that make it suitable, within a discourse, to constitute an argument for E2. (Anscombre & Ducrot 1988, p. 8). The conditions which the linguistic structure, E1, must satisfy in order to be (discursively) suitable as reasoning are given by the type of argumentational trigger that links them. For Anscombre & Ducrot, just as rhetoric was for Nietzsche, the sense of the linguistic unit does not depend on properties denoted by it in a world situated, in a naively realist way, in the exterior. Nor does the linguistic unit depend on thoughts, but rather upon the discourses that can be associated with such a unit: it is in virtue of these discourses that a determinate argumentational trigger can be given. Consequently, these points of view broaden the definition put forward above, because they present argumentation as a situational problem by maintaining the existence of argumentational situations and argumentational fields per se. Sometimes these situations are more direct in relation to the construction and reconstruction of argumentational schemes, and sometimes they are more indirect. Brown and Yule's proposals have paid more attention to that other side of the problem of argumentation, 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 6/19 which here we understand as the problem of interpretation, which concerns not only arguments in themselves but also argumentational situations, argumentational force and its degree of relevance in a communication context, argumentational operators and connectives, as well as implicit or, on the contrary, manifest topoi. This approach reaches conclusions about the presumption of coherence in the process of interpretation of meaning, which is divided into several stages, namely: calculation of the communication function, including not only understanding of the meaning of utterances, that is, a semantic focus, but also understanding of utterances as actions, that is, a pragmatic focus, and the deployment of prior knowledge and the production of inferences. One of the most valuable contributions to the understanding of utterances as actions is, in my opinion, that of Labov (1975). From the sociolinguistic standpoint, there are clearly rules of interpretation that are used to establish an inference not only from what is said, but from what is said in the light of what is done given that actions are realised by means of utterances. If we think about it, it will quickly strike us that most of our communicative exchanges are coherent only if we assume a strongly shared hypothesis, namely: that the structure of linguistic interaction is not fragmented or dissolved by the fact that utterances are unconnected; discursive continuity is already a reason for assuming a logic-discursive connection. In this sense, one may say that one of the fundamental problems for every argumentation theory is that of inference, since it is through inferential processes that validity is conferred on an assumption and, in general, on an argument. In this respect, relevance theory holds that the numerous inferential processes are a consequence of the ostensive dimension of communication, and that they are therefore usually a means for manifesting something. And the intention behind trying to manifest something makes inference an auxiliary process of the ostensive dimension of communication. Sperber and Wilson's theory of relevance turns, precisely, on the problem of assumptions in the light of inferential processes because, depending on the degree of force of an assumption and/or several assumptions, in general these will produce more or less appropriate inferences. Here we start from the fact that heuristic reasoning is not completely falsifiable or verifiable and that, nevertheless, it is this type of reasoning that we use to construct a hypothesis with which to discern, in the most productive and pertinent way possible, the communicative intentions of the transmitter (using the term 'transmitter' in a loose sense here). The notion of relevance refers, in short, to the production of contextual effects. The generation of relevant contextual effects has a close relation with inductive reasoning in its abductive modality. In this modality, induction and interpretation offer aspects which are characteristic of each and also common to both without distinction. We should consider the problem of relevance together with strong and weak implicatures: two of the most suggestive aspects of Sperber and Wilson's theory of relevance. In short, a theory that emerges in opposition to the code model based, according to Tusón (1984, p. 28) on the idea that a transmitter, in accordance with a determinate code, transmits a sign whose referent lies outside the communication process (an event, a mood, a scientific truth, etc.). The transmitted signs travel through a channel and reach the receiver who will, if in possession of the relevant code, carry out decoding[iv]. In his introductory study to writings on Nietzschean rhetoric, Santiago Guervós (2000, p. 22) wrote: 'As epistemology operates – like philosophy – by means of language, and language is essentially rhetorical – in other words, persuasive -, all questions referred to language and philosophy are rhetorical questions'. So, paraphrasing Guervós, we hold that since epistemology operates – to some extent the same as philosophy – by means of reasoning (and language is essentially reasoning, that is, persuasive expression), all questions referred to philosophy and epistemology are rhetorical, dialectic and argumentational questions. However, this approach would not be enough in itself, as it presents problems which are difficult to deal with without assuming the standpoint of linguistic ontology, which emphatically insists that language is not an instrument of representation but rather pre-forms our horizon of comprehension, being conditioned by our 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 7/19 experience of the world. Consequently, the speculative dimension that gives it life also inclines it to the ceaseless production of utterances with a suasive or dissuasive function. For our part, we maintain here that what leads us inevitably to the problem of argumentation and interpretation is the linguistic medium, which is therefore, one of the most important criteria for examining the philosophical legacy of both traditions. As I see it, the different theories of argumentation constitute a strand (among others) of continuity within the historical time line. The research of Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1989) on the new rhetoric was classified by the authors themselves within the discipline of logic. In a way, this research may be divided into two fundamental problems: on the one hand, the value of arguments; on the other, their structure. The second question stems from the analytic tradition of philosophy and leads to a careful and meticulous examination of argumentational techniques. In the context of continental philosophy, analysis of the kinds of argumentation and of its structure have also been conceived from the standpoint of the tradition of transcendental philosophy, resulting in avenues of inquiry such as that of Apel (1984, p. 656), which might be described as a transcendental reconstruction of the linguistic-pragmatic conditions of possibility and validity implicit in all argumentation[v]. There is an innate contradiction in this application of the linguistic turn to the tradition of transcendental philosophy: viewing the rhetorical tradition and theories of argumentation in the light of the Kantian problem of an ultimate foundation of objective knowledge on the basis of the philosophy of consciousness. The contradiction arises from the fact that the concept of consciousness has definitively lost the status whereby it guaranteed objective knowledge precisely in this area of problems, because the validity conditions of argumentation refer to fundamental inter-subjective frameworks, whose status as guarantors of the objective validity of any knowledge obtained depends on public argumentational processes. In these processes, neither the structure of arguments nor their value (epistemic, moral, legal, aesthetic, etc.) may be conceived along the metaphysical lines of Kantian transcendental philosophy, as long as rational conviction (once objectively sufficient) and persuasion (once rooted in the particular kind of subject and, therefore, objectively sufficient) are analysed as two interdependent phenomena in line with the rehabilitation of Aristotle and Plato effected in the 1950s by the new rhetoric and the rise of argumentation theory. Our position may be observed, for example, in the defence mounted by the new rhetoric of the so-called principle of inertia, which postulates that something accepted up until now may not be rejected without a rational reason. To some extent, it may be said that the principle of inertia is a defence of the important place occupied by the topic in argumentational processes, since argumentation cannot begin without assuming something. Gadamer's defence of the notion of prejudice rests upon the very same reason. Gadamer emphatically rejected the view that intersubjective agreements based on a quasi-transcendental idea of argumentational logic could give rise to an idea of agreement guaranteed by an unimpeachable normativity that would stamp the structure of argumentation upon the controversial or polemical processes, remarking that there cannot be universal criteria for establishing argumentational validity. Both arguments and interpretations are historically located. The generalisation of universal validity of a rule cannot be guaranteed rationally by the fact that, in a universal audience, everybody could agree with it. The Gadamerian defence of the concept of universality is, as we saw, confined to the universality of a medium, the linguistic medium. In this we see that what governs is the principle of the speculative dimension of language – a principle that we find expressed in the famous Gadamerian formula that asserts: 'the being that can be understood is language'. 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 8/19 The universal validity of any rule or norm arising from general assent can only be derived from the nature of the linguistic medium, even if this were to be conceived – hypothetically and, nevertheless, definitively – as a result of the universal validity of the rule's content. For this reason, it should be stated that prejudices or the principle of inertia modulate and orient the argumentational processes, leading them towards forms of consensus in which the modality of validity cannot any longer be established in relation to the universality of the semantic content expressed in the proposition, but rather on the basis of criteria regarding the value of arguments. These criteria do not deal with the contingent character of arguments, that is, their interpretative dimension, with which they increase the number of principles of inertia available to an epoch for reflecting on arguments in general – one of the most important tasks being to distinguish between eristic reasoning (based on apparently accepted premises) and reasoning in which there is, at least, a dialectic dimension (based on accepted premises, and with which possible contradictions are explored). When we examine his philosophical conception of hermeneutics, it becomes clear that the degree of contingency Gadamer attributes to the validity of all argumentation is greater than that estimated by, for example, Apel. I refer to the fact that he does not seem to allow that argumentational premises concerning what is real (divided by Perelman into facts and truths as opposed to argumentational premises that are assumptions) can attain universal validity in a hypothetically universal audience. Gadamer does not allow this because he does not conceive the argumentational validity of the premises of argumentation to be separate from the topoi and the characteristic principles of linguistic ontology which we referred to above. Therefore, in relation to the problem of the structure and validity of arguments, I maintain here that philosophical hermeneutics implicitly proposes once again a notion of argumentation in which propositions appearing in arguments cannot be dissociated from the structure of the latter because, as laid down in the classical hermeneutical tradition, they belong to the text as a whole or, as expressed by Toulmin's organicist metaphor[vi], they are greater than the sum of their parts (Toulmin 1958, p. 29). The 'whole' (mentioned a few lines above) is formed linguistically, that is, in a universal medium, but it cannot provide a universal condition of validity thanks to transcendental instances reformulated within a logiclinguistic paradigm, above all if we accept that all propositions can be conceived as actions and cannot be extracted from the pragmatic contexts in which they are uttered and by virtue of which they signify and connote. This is why Gadamer often understands it to be a characteristic of hermeneutic philosophy to give fuel to the dissolution of the modern dichotomy between philosophy and rhetoric or new rhetoric, within which he would situate the developments of argumentation theories. So the connotations of an expression do not obscure their comprehensibility (as they do not univocally designate their reference), but rather increase it insofar as the nexus to which they refer becomes more comprehensible as a whole. It is the whole that is constructed here with words [arguments, interpretations, etc.], and it is only given in them. Gadamer has a Platonic standpoint when he states that dialectics is a more suitable medium than rhetoric because it offers the possibility of counter-argument. The dialectic model of counter-argumentation cannot be compared to rhetoric if we take the latter to be a medium for showing that the orator's skill may turn his position both towards defence and attack of what has already been stated, that is, when we have a concept of argumentation in which it has no specific function and, therefore, can be used to defend a tendentiously unlimited variety of theoretical viewpoints, or even a no less limited variety of intentions and goals in action. This is not the case with the argumentational model that prevails in the interpretative processes based on the 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 9/19 dialectic method of questioning, in which the dialectic is presented as a medium for pragmatically and speculatively resolving and explaining the thesis before us[vii]. This method is probative rather than demonstrative; nor is it a method comparable to the persuasive processes as such, because it is not strictly aimed at persuasion, and it may only be applied, according to Aristotle, to those philosophical issues whose obviousness one wishes to reveal. On the basis of these first distinctions between dialectic, rhetoric and topic one may state that philosophical hermeneutics, while it does not analyse the concepts of argumentational validity and structure (although it did address the validity and structure of interpretation in the classical period), provides the model of a linguistic ontology in which theories of argumentation are held. If we adopt a prescriptivist, descriptivist or instrumentalist standpoint to clarify whether a normative theory of argumentation is possible, that is, if we can conceive, and in what terms, the legitimacy of the rules that govern the action of arguing (in respect of the structure of arguments and the argumentational value of reasoning), there remains a prior question, namely: the question of linguistic ontology after the linguistic turn. For example, it could be maintained that the semantic content of the concept of argumentational normativity is the product of conventions or, on the contrary, that it is not, sensu stricto, a product of conventions. But if we accept the assumptions of a linguistic ontology, we may still take an adjacent position. Given that the concept of argumentational normativity refers to argumentational value in the most general way, the hypothetical conventions on which the norm or the rules for arguing would have to be based – according to the conventional position – would become resolvable. In spite of that, at a certain point these conventions would not be negotiable, because their argumentational value would be closely linked to the epistemic condition of being an act of showing an argument by means of one or several propositions. The convention of the rule – even if we hold a conventional conception regarding the foundation of logical laws – would end up acquiring a normative dimension because it forms part of the argumentational activity. Therefore, by virtue of an exploration that is not so much 'reproductive' as 'constructive' in order to bring Gadamerian thought up to date, we maintain here that linguistic ontology is the implicit model in the development of argumentation theory for two reasons. Firstly, because language is where the action of arguing is carried out; and secondly, because it is by virtue of language that a complex allocation of the historical logos is achieved. In Gadamer's thinking, this formula combines the Greek concept of natural rationality and the Hegelian concept of reason in history – ultimately, it is neither the one nor the other, because the general formulation of the historical logos is expressed in principles. Consequently, as it is a modality of rationality inconceivable outside of the historical time line(s), it does not provide models of normativity compelling enough to elevate itself into even an instant of historical time nor, strictly speaking, into the concept of a Hegelian absolute spirit, but rather perhaps into models whose normativity depends on (the being of) language as a form of mediation between: (1) the shared consciousness of an epoch, (2) the development of reasoning characteristic of what Gadamer called the social consciousness (which is why there is a modality of shared virtue rhetoric in every epoch or, at least, a logic, or a civil rhetoric, as well as a psychology and a sociology of reasoning), (3) experience of the verisimilar, (4) experience of normative value (logical, ethical and legal) of world interpretations – construing 'world' not only in the sense of 'world view', but rather as a group of codes, theories, traditions, etc., which constitute a knowing; these interpretations could give rise to, or even in some cases, form or pre-form argumentational values. The definition of argumentation and interpretation has semantic boundaries that are both subtly and eloquently permeable, taking into account the fact that in the final analysis all forms of knowledge cannot but approach 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 10/19 and construct their object or topic by means of argumentational and interpretative processes. This accounts for why the latter may be characterised as the new koine of our time (Navarro 2009). REFERENCES Anscombre, J.C., & Ducrot, O. (1988). L'Argumenation Dans La Langue. Paris: Pierre Mardaga Éditeur. Apel, K.-O. (1994). Semiótica filosófica. Buenos Aires: Almagesto. Brown, G. ,& Yule G. (1983). Discourse análisis. Cambridge: Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Corcoran, J. (1989). Argumentation and Logic. Argumentation 3, 17-43. Eemeren, F. H. van, & Grootendorst, R. (2004). A Systematic Theory of Argumentation. The PragmaDialectical Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gadamer, H.-G. (1976). Hermeneutik I: Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1985 [1960]. Guervós, L. (2000). Escritos sobre retórica. Madrid: Editorial Trotta. Labov, W. (1975). What is a linguistic fact? Lisse: The Peter de Ridder Press. Marafioti, R. (1997). Temas de argumentación. Buenos Aires: Ed. Biblos. Navarro, M. (2009). Interpretar y Argumentar. Madrid/México: CSIC/ Plaza y Valdés. Perelman, Ch., & Olbrechts-Tyteca, L. (1989). Traité De L'Argumentation. La Nouvelle Rhétorique. Bruxelles: Éditions de L'Université de Bruxelles. Russell, S., & Norvig, P. (2003). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Schnädelbach, H. (2000). Tipos de racionalidad. Éndoxa 12, 397-422. Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance. Comunication and Cognition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Toulmin, S. (1958). The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tusón Valls, A. (1984). Lingüística. Barcelona: Editorial Barcanova. Vega, L. (1993). Tà Éndoxa: argumentación y plausibilidad. Éndoxa 1, 5-19. You May Also Like ISSA Proceedings 2010 Preface 12/29/2014 ISSA Proceedings 2010 – Elements For An Argumentative Method Of Interpretation : Rozenberg Quarterly http://rozenbergquarterly.com/issa-proceedings-2010-elements-for-an-argumentative-method-of-interpretation/ 11/19 ISSA Proceedings 2010 - "War With Words": I.A. 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Beyond Quantum Theory: A Realist Psycho-Biological Interpretation of Physical Reality

Philosophy

BEYOND QUANTUM THEORY: A REALIST PSYCHO-BIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF PHYSICAL REALITY * Michael Conrad Computer Science Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, U.S.A. D. Home Theoretical Nuclear Physics Division Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Calcutta 700009, India Brian Josephson Cavendish Laboratory Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HE, England. © Kluwer Academic 1988 ABSTRACT Stapp and others have proposed that reality involves a fundamental life process, or creative process. It is shown how this process description may be unified with the description that derives from quantum physics. The methods of the quantum physicist and of the biological sciences are seen to be two alternative approaches to the understanding of nature, involving two distinct modes of description which can usefully supplement each other, and neither on its own contains the full story. The unified view explains the major features of quantum mechanics and suggests that biological systems may function more effectively than would be expected on the basis of quantum mechanics alone. BEYOND QUANTUM THEORY: A REALIST PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF PHYSICAL REALITY 1. INTRODUCTION The thesis developed in this paper is that the quantum domain and the domain of life processes are closely related and indeed inseparable from one another, a relationship of which kind has been suggested in a number of recent publications.(1-3) These proposals depart from orthodoxy by postulating that a phenomenon whose general nature is that of a life process underlies all natural phenomena, and then attempt to account for certain features of the quantum domain on such a basis. A related idea is developed in some detail in what follows, to the effect that there exists in the natural world a quantum mechanical/biological dualism, analogous to the wave-particle dualism found in the ordinary quantum domain. The methods of the quantum physicist and of the biological sciences are seen as two alternative approaches to the understanding of nature, involving two distinct modes of description which can usefully supplement each other (cf. Leggett(4)), neither of which contains on its own the full story. Our unified approach to the description of natural phenomena shows how it may be possible that the apparent advantage of the quantum mechanical approach, namely that it provides predictions of a precise nature, may be offset by its corresponding disadvantage of dealing with nature only in statistical terms. In terms of a simple analogy involving a classical fluid that we shall make use of in what follows, quantum theory corresponds to statistical mechanics, while process-type descriptions correspond to descriptions involving the characteristics of individual atoms. 2. THE CHARACTERISTIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO CATEGORIES OF DESCRIPTION We discuss first the contrasting approaches of the two disciplines, quantum-physical and biological. The characteristic differences between the two approaches largely account for the fact that these two distinct types of description of nature exist. Quantum mechanics is a theory of nature founded on the philosophy that one ought to be able to assign a precise, quantitative description to the systems of interest. Such a view, while satisfactory in the case of many kinds of systems studied in the physics laboratory, does not seem to be suitable for the case of biological systems. These have an intrinsic variability which cannot be characterised in full in terms of any kind of measurement or preparation procedure. It is impossible to give a biological system a quantum-mechanically precise specification (in the way we can write down the ground state of a molecule or a superconductor to a good approximation), or to predict its properties with high accuracy (a state of affairs already noted by Bohr).(5) What can be done, however, as is normally done by biologists, is to specify biosystems in descriptive terms involving variables of a more global nature, and to determine what are the important processes relevant to explaining some of the observed properties. We note also that quantum mechanics is a highly formalised theory in which all contact with actual phenomena has to go via the quantum theory of measurement; this makes it very difficult to talk in a technically correct way about what is actually happening in the system of interest. Again, this is less of a problem with biological descriptions in terms of processes, which being a looser form of description circumvent the difficulties of principle which are associated with precise descriptions. In practice, biology and quantum mechanics work together and complement each other. Biology borrows results from physics and chemistry to obtain explanations for biological phenomena, thus explaining them with some degree of quantitative accuracy. Nevertheless, the fact remains that quantum mechanics is precisionoriented and biology process-oriented, and that to some extent the two goals are incompatible with each other. 3. WAVE-PARTICLE DUALISM AND QUANTUM MECHANICAL/ BIOLOGICAL DUALISM The meaning of the word dualism in the quantum mechanical context is that in some situations we can find phenomena such as diffraction which are well described by a wave picture, while in other situations we find instead phenomena, such as the photoelectric effect, which are best fitted by a particle picture. The initial reconciliation of these two apparently incompatible forms of description came in the first instance from de Broglie's demonstration that the motion of an electron in an applied field could be understood perfectly well in terms of a wave picture (i.e., in terms of wave packets), provided one made the appropriate identification of wave and particle properties such as that given by the de Broglie relationship connecting wavelength and momentum. This situation (i.e. the one of the computation of trajectories) is one where either description, wave or particle, may be used equally well; the two descriptions are not, as is usually the case, complementary in the sense of being mutually exclusive, and they are related to each other in accordance with de Broglie's prescriptions. Turning now to proposals such as those of Stapp(1) (and especially his proposal that the phenomenon of state vector collapse in the domain of quantum mechanics can equally be viewed as a phenomenon in the field of mind, namely a decision process), we find an analogous situation: that there is a domain of reality where some phenomena can be viewed within two alternative frames of reference, here the quantum mechanical and the biological. In the wave-particle dualism case, a mathematical derivation connecting the two pictures can be given. While we are unable to provide a similar mathematical derivation for the situation of interest here, we are able to make a consistent set of proposals concerning which entities connect up with each other in the two pictures. These proposals, which extend those of Stapp and the other authors cited, are shown in Table 1. LANGUAGE OF QUANTUM PHYSICS LANGUAGE OF BIOLOGY quantum subsystem, describable by a state vector ↔ signal or form particle type ↔ type of signal or form state vector representing a specific possibility ↔ signal representing a specific possibility collapse of state vector ↔ decision process measuring instrument determining state of subsystem ↔ structures which determine and regulate signals or forms Table 1. Proposed identification of entities described in terms of the respective frames of reference of the quantum physicist and the biologist. In the proposed correspondence, we begin by assuming that a quantum subsystem, such as an electron which is to a first approximation isolated, translates into what in the biological picture would be regarded as a signal. We note that signals in biosystems are superposible in the linear regime, as are state vectors of quantum subsystems. The motivation for choosing this particular assignment in the correspondence is that signals in biological systems and state vectors of quantum subsystems both constitute indications, and in some cases very specific indications, of possibilities for the future. For example, a peak in an electron wave function is closely correlated with the possibility of observing an electron in the region of the peak, while, in the biological domain, the nervous system activity corresponding to the planning process may implicate within itself a very specific action in the future. We can go further with the correspondence by noting (following Stapp) that the processes of collapse of a state vector in a quantum system and decision in the field of mind share the feature that they involve the selection of one alternative out of many. There are specific contexts in which these processes are particularly liable to occur; measurement in the quantum domain and information processing in the biological domain. Hence we connect measuring instruments in quantum mechanics, which shape the state vector, with the structures in biosystems that determine and regulate signals or forms. We see that there is a scheme of connection between the two regimes which preserves many or all of the essential non-quantitative features and also links features of the quantum domain which have to be simply postulated with features of living systems which can be explained in detail in many instances. If such a link could be shown to be in fact soundly based, it would then be valid to state that these features of the quantum domain were actually explained by the corresponding biological arguments. We hypothesize that a theory based on a more comprehensive understanding of the situation would validate the proposed connections in a way analogous to the way in which de Broglie and those who succeeded him demonstrated the connection between the wave and particle pictures at the quantum level. 4. EMERGENCE OF BIOLOGICAL AND QUANTUM PROPERTIES FROM A SUBTLER LEVEL The picture we have developed so far is that certain aspects of the domain which is described by the quantum theory may arise by virtue of mechanisms found in biological systems. We now wish to discuss the complementary features of the quantum and the biological domains in more detail and in particular consider the question of how both domains of description may emerge by somewhat different mechanisms from a common substratum. We shall discuss first the processes by which biological characteristics can emerge in the context of the presumed deeper level. These are presumed to be essentially identical to those by which the organisation characteristic of ordinary living systems comes into existence. One dominant feature of the domain of living systems is the existence of information sources, such as DNA or neural impulses, which can have a strong controlling influence on the nature of the forms that will be created within or by a biological system, and on the general activity of the system. Two different mechanisms by which the information sources come into being can be distinguished. One of these is mutation combined with natural selection, which causes the evolution of information sources that are particularly useful from the point of view of survival to occur. The second category depends on rather more subtle processes involving self-organisation, found, for example, in processes of morphogenesis, development, and learning. Typically, such a process involves assessment of the performance of a particular function, with subsequent modification of the controlling information source (or of the system being controlled itself), in accordance with a specific appropriate procedure or algorithm whose effect is to generate a corresponding improvement in the performance of the given function. Such a feedback process determines not the precise details of the structure, but instead the functioning of the system at a general level (known as the phenotype). There is even more variability at the more detailed genotype level than is encompassed by the arguments given so far, since different information sources (genotypes) may give rise to the same general functioning (phenotype), as long as this general functioning makes a sufficient contribution to the fitness of the organism that natural selection can select for genotypes conducive to this functioning. It was noted also by Bohr(5) that, in view of the disturbances produced by measurement in the quantum mechanical domain, one could not expect to measure the microscopic details of biosystems without disturbing them in essential ways. These arguments give a logical basis to our previous proposals to the effect that biosystems are amenable to general descriptions but not to precise ones. The general features of biological organisation that have just been discussed (which are the basis of such features as the use of signals and the existence of planning and decision processes, which feature on the right-hand side of Table 1) are independent of the details of the underlying physics and could be present equally well if there were an underlying physics deeper than that described by quantum physics. We make the assumption that such a deeper level exists, because it is then possible to account for the corresponding features on the left side of Table 1, by assuming the situations described by quantum mechanics to be a particular case of a more general situation (just as particle trajectories are explained by de Broglie's arguments as a special situation within a more general picture in terms of waves). This assumption could not be made if we were to take the usual view that all natural phenomena could be accounted for on the basis of the axioms of quantum mechanics alone. We now discuss in general terms how quantum mechanics might arise as a special case. We interpret the state vector as a description of a collective mode, whose existence is dependent on the presence of a sufficiently regular substructure (in the way that, for example, spin waves in ferromagnets depend on the background being magnetically ordered). Hilbert space is interpreted as the space of all such collective modes, which in a biological context manifest as signals. The quantum vacuum state, since it is represented by a specific vector in Hilbert space, is interpreted as a specific collective mode of the system rather than as no oscillation at all, and particles correspond to various kinds of modulation of the special oscillation that corresponds to the vacuum state, with the operators describing these modulations having the same interrelations with each other (in terms of their commutation relations, and transformations under symmetry operations, for example) as do particle creation and annihilation operators in quantum field theory. In quantum mechanics the idea of a classical domain plays an essential role, since only it is presumed to be knowable directly. In the viewpoint of the present paper, the difference between the classical domain and the quantum domain is considered to be one of degree only. The significant differences between the quantum domain and the classical domain follow from the fact that features at the quantum level are very sensitive to disturbances, while those at the classical level are not. In accordance with the general scheme proposed in Table 1 for translating between the two languages, what is seen from the biological view as a decision process is described in quantum language as the collapse of the state vector. Quantum mechanics describes the collapse process mathematically, but does not explain the process in detail, as may be possible in the biological picture which may be able to take into account factors not correctly describable in the statistical formalism of quantum mechanics. 5. KNOWLEDGE AND MEASUREABILITY The last remark brings us naturally to questions relating to measurablity. Measurement is a process characterised by the fact that some feature of a system of interest becomes correlated with a feature of a system which is sufficiently macroscopic as to be observable with the senses (via intermediate amplification processes if necessary). In the quantum domain the measurement process reflects back drastically on the system being measured. The projection postulate of quantum mechanical measurement theory shows that the measuring instrument acts as a filter whose setting depends on the state of the measuring instrument after the measurement interaction. The correlate of this assumption in the biological language (cf. Table 1) is the registering by an information processing system of the decision process that it has just carried out. It should be noted that in the current interpretation we do not assert that such processes as the state vector collapse associated with quantum measurement are purely formal or imaginary and have no corresponding physical correlates. Instead we assume the mathematical filtering operation to correspond to a real physical process the detailed nature of which may become clarified when the biological aspects of the unified theory are taken fully into account. We remark also that the Aspect experiment, based on the theoretical discussion of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen, suggests that this filtering process may act nonlocally, or at any rate that some kind of distant physical connections must exist in the quantum domain. In science, measurement is the fundamental agency through which knowledge is acquired. Quantum mechanical measurement theory is one particular theory of measurement, which in the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics has been elevated to the status of a theory of all conceivable measurement processes. However, the formal apparatus of quantum mechanics imposes strong limitations on its ability to describe experiment. We recall that, within the framework of quantum mechanics, systems are specifiable only by "quantum mechanical measurements", defined as measurements which can be precisely associated with particular Hermitian operators. There is no real reason why all information-gathering devices, and in particular devices based on different concepts as to what kind of information is being gathered, should fit into this particular formal scheme. This theme may be illustrated with an analogy which will prove useful later, consisting of a gas composed of classical atoms or molecules. Because of the phenomenon of chaos, the detailed behaviour of the gas is essentially unpredictable except for very short time scales, but in certain regimes various phenomena emerge which are practically predictable on the basis of the appropriate scientific laws. The two regimes that are relevant in the case of a gas are the one of macroscopic laws (such as those of hydrodynamics) and the one concerned with the behaviour of individual atoms in a collision-free situation. From the viewpoint of macroscopic theories of gases, measurement consists purely of measurements of macroscopic quantities such as those of the local density, pressure, and temperature; and one could imagine there existing on another planet, where science developed differently, a Copenhagen-type school expounding the doctrine that all possible measurements in gases were of this type, and maintaining on this basis that the macroscopic equations of gases (combined with phenomenological equations to describe fluctuation phenomena) formed a complete description of the outcome of all possible experiments. In accordance with this point of view, all speculation concerning atoms could be dismissed as being of philosophical interest only. In this fanciful analogy it is presumed, naturally, that the other sources of evidence for the existence of atoms, such as those based on chemistry, were unknown to our hypothetical scientists. This hypothetical example shows us clearly how a new concept of what can be measured can change the content of science, as happened historically when experiments focussing on the properties of atoms as individual entities became technically feasible. We shall take the view here, implicit in what has already been said, to the effect that nature does not in general fit exactly into any particular prescribed scheme of description or measurement: describability is context-dependent, and it is only in special circumstances (which may in some cases be created by the actions of the experimenter) that phenomena emerge which fit into a particular scheme. 6. AN ARGUMENT FOR BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS TRANSCENDING QUANTUM MECHANICS Biosystems are an area where the considerations of this paper may be particularly relevant. Again we refer to the analogy with a classical gas that was used to expound our proposed dualism between quantum mechanical and biological descriptions. In descriptions of a classical gas based on statistical mechanics, quantities such as density fluctuations are described only in statistical terms. In the framework of the atomic description, on the other hand, they can in principle be described exactly. By analogy, one might expect it to be possible to obtain more accurate descriptions (and hence also predictions) of particular quantities in biological systems using biological descriptions than using the methods of quantum mechanics. Consider in particular the following scenario: the level of performance of a skill depends on very specific subtleties of structure that are individual to each system. These subtleties are not of the kind that can be encompassed within the descriptions of the quantum theory (which are assumed to relate to simpler, collective behaviour). Quantum theory fails to describe the subtleties for essentially the same reason that hydrodynamics fails to describe the behaviour of individual atoms. It will therefore equally fail to describe correctly any behaviour which is critically dependent on these subtleties. Because the general effect of evolution has been in the direction of modifying the relevant parameters so as to optimise performance, the anticipated effect of any inadequacies of the quantum theory is that biological systems may function more effectively than would be predicted from an exact quantum mechanical calculation. It might be assumed that the successes achieved hitherto in the domain of biology using theories based on quantum mechanics would argue against such a state of affairs. In fact, current applications of quantum mechanics to biosystems do not really test for the existence of such effects, because of the degree of approximation that is involved in the theories concerned. In effect, in such calculations all physical systems above the molecular level of organisation are normally treated in classical terms. Level of performance in biosystems is therefore one area where our ideas may have important implications for the future. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to Drs. H. R. Nagendra, R. L. Thompson, H. P. Stapp, and M. Mahesh Yogi for discussions and comments. B. D. Josephson would like to thank the Computer Science Department of Wayne State University and the Centre for Theoretical Studies of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for their hospitality during part of the period of this collaboration, and D. Home the British Council for their financial support. FOOTNOTE * Published in Microphysical Reality and Quantum Formalism, Vol. I, eds. G. Tarozzi, A. van der Merwe and F. Selleri, pp 285-93, Kluwer Academic, 1988. REFERENCES 1. H. P. Stapp, Found. Phys. 12, 363-99, 1982; 15, 35-47, 1985. 2. C. N. Villars, Psychoenergetics 5, 1-10 and 129-39, 1983. 3. H. H. Pattee, "Can life explain quantum mechanics?" in Quantum Theory and Beyond, E. Bastin, ed., (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971), pp. 307-319. 4. A. J. Leggett, "Reflections on the quantum measurement paradox", In Quantum Theory and Beyond, B. J. Hiley and F. D. Peat, eds., (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1986). 5. N. Bohr, "Light and life" in Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, (Wiley, New York, 1958), pp. 3-12.