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Ah, Yes, That Misplaced Concreteness

Jan 16, 2009

Over at Evolving Thoughts, John Wilkins is pursuing his series on the ontology of biology with a post on patterns and process. "One of the enduring mistakes made in science and philosophy is to confuse how things seem with how they are," he writes. "Patterns are relationships that are salient to the observer, while processes account for the patterns, and many other kinds as well." He describes the common confusion that has become known as "the fallacy of misplaced concreteness" and acknowledges that "I am sure I am equally guilty of it as anyone else."

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