An entity is a whole that consists of parts. A chair,
for example, consists of legs, a seat, and a back. It is a human artefact and
so is founded in the formative modal aspect, but as a piece of furniture that
provides a resting place for people it is qualified or guided by the social
aspect. However if we look again at the chair we can say that it is a physical
object made up of wood or other material. This wood has its own typical
structure. There is one chair, but it seems we must analysis it in terms of at
least two different idionomies. These two idionomies are intertwined in a
specific way which Dooyeweerd described using the term encapsis.
Hopefully this word reminds you of the word encapsulate. It means that a
certain thing may be encapsulated within some other entity. The wood is
encapsulated within the idionomy of the chair. In other words there is an
interwinement of the two idionomies.
There are a number of different ways in which
idionomies can be intertwined. For example there is a symbiotic encapsis
in the case of the yucca plant and the yucca moth. There is correlative
encapsis between a living being and its habitat, or between a church and a
state. Then there is a subject-object encapsis of the snail and its
shell, the spider and its web, or the bird and its nest.
It is important to understand that encaptic
relationships are whole-whole relationships and not part-whole. “We identify a
whole by its typical structure or idionomy, where there are two idionomies the
relationship will be an encaptic one and not a part-whole one. This is very
important when later we investigate human society. Consider now a living cell
which has very clear parts, such as the mitochondria, they are parts of the
cell because they derive their (biotically qualified) idionomy from the cell as
the whole. But the molecules within the cell are not parts of it, for they have
an (energetically qualified) idionomy of their own. Their energetic idionomy is
encapsulated within, or encaptically intertwined with, the biotic idionomy of
the cell.” (Ouweneel 2014a 89) This example is a case of foundational encapsis
which is possibly the most important type of encapsis when thinking in terms of
our place in the cosmos, whereas correlative encapsis is more important in
understanding the coordination of our tasks together in the cosmos. In the
example of molecules within the cell the idionomy of the molecules within the
cell forms the foundation for the idionomy of the cell as such. Without this
idionomy – without molecules – there could be no cell. At the same time, the
cell is much more than the sum total of its molecules. It has an idionomy of
its own, that is qualified, or guided, by the biotic aspect.
If we now return to our first example of the chair we
see another example of foundational encapsis. The idionomy of the wood is
foundationally encapsulated within the idionomy of the chair, together they
form an encaptic whole. Without the wood there is no chair, but the chair is
much more than a configuration of wooden pieces. The demands of the chair with
its social qualifying function guides the structure of the wooden pieces. The
structure of the chair is superimposed on the structure of the wood, just as
the structure of your house is superimposed on the structure of the bricks and
mortar that is its basic material. Now contrast this with an ornamental plant,
or a pet dog, their character goes beyond their natural idionomy but not because
they are encapsulated within a new whole, rather they are encapsulated within a
new context and so form a correlative encapsis with their new environment.
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