Suppose you encounter a machine whose purpose you cannot fathom. You can analyze how each part pushes and pulls the other and even the various ways in which the combined parts may act. You can describe those movements in terms of laws. And these laws are laws open to the possibility of having one purpose or another. That is, you can know HOW the parts behave without determining whether they even have a purpose.
Suppose, however, that the evidence is overwhelming that it is indeed a human built machine: in such a case you can can know THAT the whole has a purpose without knowing WHAT the purpose is. In a sense, the purpose is not the sum of the parts, but rather the same sum in relation to a specific purported purpose had by the one who designed it.
BTW: I don't know what the purpose of this analysis is...
Suppose, however, that the evidence is overwhelming that it is indeed a human built machine: in such a case you can can know THAT the whole has a purpose without knowing WHAT the purpose is. In a sense, the purpose is not the sum of the parts, but rather the same sum in relation to a specific purported purpose had by the one who designed it.
BTW: I don't know what the purpose of this analysis is...
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