Emergentism

Alex Rosenberg That s a critical question because there are at least some defenders of emergentism and anti-reductionism who have distinguished sharply between causation as an ontological phenomena and explanation as epistemological and say that though physicalism is true, that is, we are nothing but matter and motion, nevertheless, the best explanations of our behaviour will not be physical. Bob ... 

Schaffner, K. F. (1998), Genes, behavior and developmental emergentism one process, indivisible Model organisms and behavioral genetics a rejoinder , Philos. Sci, 65, 209-252 276-288. 

For a long time, emergence has been an active field of inquiry in the philosophy of science. As noted by McLaughlin (1992), the work of British emergentism can be dated back to Mill (1872) and Bain (1870) and flourished in the 1920s with the work of Alexander (1920), Morgan (1923), and Broad (1925) and the inquiry continues up to the present (see, Wimsatt, 1972 1976a, b), Kim, 1984 Klee, 1984 Sperry, 1986 O Connor, 1994 Bedau, 1997 Farre and Oksala, 1998 Holland, 1998 Primas, 1998 Schroeder, 1998, and several others). 

It is important to emphasize that this kind of chemical relatedness does not need to assume any special effect other than the normal laws of chemistry and physics. As already mentioned, special effects are often invoked in the literature -particularly in the old British emergentism. This has been one of the reasons why emergentism in general has been criticized, and once special forces are eliminated from the picture, then this criticism immediately loses validity, as pointed out by Schroder (1998) in his criticism of McLaughlin (1992). 

McLaughlin, B. 1992, The Rise and Fall of British Emergentism, In Emergence or Reduction Essays on the Prospect of a Non-Reductive Physicalism, Beckerman, A. Flohr, H. Kim J., Eds. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1992, pp. 49-93, quoted from p. 54-55. 

As will become apparent in a later section, if the notion of emergence is to make sense when considering interdiscourse relations between talk of pure substances, chemical molecules, and quantum mechanical calculations, then it is more a case of backward emergentism. It is the details of molecular structure or the introduction of quantum mechanics that is novel, not the properties of pure substances. In contrast, if one takes "novel" in such a way that the most recent theory is the place from which... 

Fagherazzi-Pagel H (2009) Maladies emergentes et reemergentes chez I homme. Dossier de synthese. CNRS/INIST, Paris... 

The two chapters in the next section take up chemistry s relation to physics and, in particular, the bug-a-boo of reductionism. The chapters complement each other. The first, by Robin Hendry, looks at chemistry s relation to physics from the point of view of philosophy, bringing the carefiil analyst s conceptual scalpel to the minefield of reductionism and emergentism. The second, by G.K. Vemulapalli, looks at chemistry s relation to physics from the point of view of chemistry, simultaneously acknowledging the importance of the fundamental laws of physics for chemistry, while conceding none of chemistry s autonomy... 

Actually, as I argue in the next section, the argument doesn t work a unst NRP but has some bite against nonphysicalist emergentism. 

McLaughlin finds the kind of emergentism espoused by Broad enormously implausible . According to McLaughlin, the faU of British emergentism was not caused by some philosophical difficulties, but by advances in science ... 

Since the view I m proposing meets both characteristics of emergence, and is made possible by the existence of functional properties, I will call it functional emergence. The use of the term emergence is appropriate because the existence of functional properties in chemistry supports the layered view of the world characteristic of emergentism. The sui generis chemical properties, laws and explanations function at a higher level than the physical properties, laws and explanations they depend on the physical level, but they do not reduce to it. 

Try to find one more example of the complex system firom the emergentism point of view. 

Reductionism versus emergentism. These are two opposite conceptions of the relationship between organization levels. Reductionism is a principle stating that all properties of objects can be deduced from the properties of objects belonging to the lower level. Emergentism claims that some properties cannot be reduced to combinations of lower-level properties. This is summarized by the sentence the whole is not the sum of all its parts. ... 

The advantage of reductionism is to allow a true analytical approach for dividing a system into simpler elements and being able to reconstruct it in the opposite way. Emergentism requires a rigorous definition of levels and associated properties for pretending to be a valid approach. 

As such a clear picture is rarely available, the most widespread and secure approach in science is reductionism. Emergentism is often considered, with reason, as pure speculation, owing to the lack of theoretical tools. 

RECORD. (2012). Substances emergentes, polluants emergents dans les dechets. analyse et prospective... 

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). (2009). Previsiones de los expertos sobre los riesgos quimicos emergentes en relacion con la seguridad y la salud en el trabajo. Facts, 84. 

EU-OSHA (2007). Relatdrio do observatdrio de risco europeu. Previsao dos peritos para riscos psicossoci-ais emergentes relacionados com a seguranga e saude ocupacionaL Belgium. 

McLaughlin on British Emergentism and the relationship of chemistry to physics... 

Brian McLaughlin has written a frequently cited paper in which he seeks to give an overview of the philosophical school that he dubs British Emergentism which includes the work of J.S. Mill, Bain, Lewes, Morgan and most recently C.D. Broad. I begin with a brief summary of McLaughlin s characterization of these philosophers, especially of C.D. Broad. 

---