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On the Use of “Illusion”

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Abstract

In this commentary on Denis Noble’s paper, I focus on his use of the term “illusion,” and juxtapose it with other potential terms, in particular several others he has used for similar points in his book, Dance to the Tune of Life. His use of “illusion,” if more fully explicated, might be of even broader applicability than in his paper. I ask about potential classes of errors in science and remark about his “principle of biological relativity.”

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References

  • Corning, P. A. (1998). “The synergism hypothesis”: On the concept of synergy and its role in the evolution of complex systems. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 21, 133–172.

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  • Noble, D. (2016). Dance to the tune of life. Biological Relativity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

  • Volk, T. (2017). Quarks to culture. How we came to be, New York, Columbia University Press.

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Correspondence to Tyler Volk.

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Volk, T. On the Use of “Illusion”. Biosemiotics 14, 127–129 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-021-09431-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-021-09431-1

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