Nature, Design and Science

The Status of Design in Natural Science

Del Ratzsch

I Design Basics

Ch1 Design Preliminaries

p3 def of design

p4 Dawkins quote on apparent design

p4 Introduces the idea of counterflow as key to the recognition of design.

p5 "counterflow refers to things running contrary to what, in the relevant sense, would (or might) have resulted or occurred had nature operated freely."

p6 "an artifact is anything embodying counterflow."

p7 Paley's watch as counterflow. Counterflow could be exhibited in the result, the process, or the initial conditions , and Paley's watch is his example of "result" counterflow.

p8 "Process" counterflow example - Matterhorn duplicate dropped on Cleveland, exact copy of a complicated natural protein.

p8 "Initial conditions" counterflow, a picture of creating life in huge Tupperware containers - perhaps an oblique reference to Miller-Urey.

p10 Set of characteristics of counterflow. Uses subtle cardshark to illustrate the characteristics Parts vs Systems, Surface vs Deep, Direct vs Indirect, Synchronic vs Diachronic, Hard vs Soft . A diesel bulldozer embodies the first characteristic in each pair while the subtle cardshark embodies the second.

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