[Buddha-l] Moment of individuation

[Thomas Oltman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stanley J. Ziobro II" <ziobro at wfu.edu>
To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 7:27 PM
Subject: RE: [Buddha-l] Moment of individuation


> On Fri, 15 Apr 2005, Bob Smith wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > "Stanley J. Ziobro II" <ziobro at wfu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > >
>Vegetative, animate, and intellectual
>creatures however do undergo various levels of growth and individuation.
>Food, as an energy source, is needed to maintain the physical organism,
>but the very dynamism that accounts for actual development cannot be
>attibuted merely to this food.  The ability to assimilate the food
>requires something more than the presence of food.  Another consideration
>is that the organism develops in a particular manner with very specific
>characteristics, and these teleological functions are not located in the
>food source.

Independently of the rest of your argument, I think it's false to say
"teleological functions are not located in the
food source".  Doesn't the food source (and the rest of the environment)
determine quite directly which functions the organism will develop,
including any teleological ones?  You not only are what you eat, but what
you eat has , with a little help from his friends, formed you specifically
to eat it.

The environment develops itself, and what it develops changes it.

Better, perhaps, to say "these teleological functions are not located only
in the food source, but also in the individual class.

TomOltman