Pragmatism and Emergentism
In Chauncey Wright’s Evolutionary Philosophy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13002192 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A Parravicini (0000-0003-0772-6878, University of Milan, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2036-4091 • E-ISSN: 2036-4091 |
| Publisher | Associazione Pragma (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.4000/ejpap.1623 |
| OpenAlex | W2997085731 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 62 |
The notion of “emergence” has recently received renewed attention in research fields ranging from biology to cognitive sciences and philosophy of mind. Today’s concept of “emergence” incorporates a long history of philosophical debates and reflections that can be traced back to James and John Stuart Mill and nineteenth-century associationist philosophy. This tradition reached its theoretical maturity in the early twentieth century with so-called classical British emergentism, which gained the attention of pragmatist philosophers from the beginning. In the current literature exploring the relationship between Pragmatism and the emergentist tradition, almost nothing is said about the interesting case of Chauncey Wright (1830-1875), a follower of J. S. Mill and A. Bain, and a crucial figure for the origins of pragmatist philosophy. After a brief historical introduction about the history of the notion of “emergence” and its relationship to classical Pragmatism, the paper aims to examine Wright’s philosophy in relation, on one hand, to the pragmatist tradition and, on the other hand, to the problem of emergence. In the wake of Wright’s original interpretation of Darwin’s evolutionary theory, the article focuses on the key notions of “novelty” and “new uses,” through which Wright developed an “emergentist” philosophy that was well ahead of its time and attracted the interest of Samuel Alexander, one of the major philosophers of classical British emergentism. In the second part, the paper analyzes Wright’s reflections about the origin of human self-consciousness as a paradigmatic case of authentic evolutionary novelty. In the final part, the article focuses on the kind of pragmatic realism sketched out by Wright and summarizes the most important aspects to have emerged during the scholarly debate on the topic
American philosophy · Art history · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Metaphysics · Nothing · Philosophy of science · Pragmatism · Relation (database · Western philosophy · Wright · Evolution and Science Education · History · Origins and Evolution of Life · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science
Emergence – A Systematic View on its Historical Facets
The Rise and Fall of British Emergentism
Philosophical discussions.
The Structure of Science
Making Sense of Emergence
Exaptation—a Missing Term in the Science of Form
Emergence in Psychology
Emergent Evolution
On Emergence and Explanation
An evolutionary context for the emergence of language
Does Continuity Allow For Emergence
Evolution and Emergence
John Dewey, Lloyd Morgan et l’avènement d’un nouveau naturalisme pragmatico-émergentiste
Emergence
Studies in the Logic of Explanation
Evolution and the Rise of the Scientific Spirit in America
Evolution in American Philosophy
Natural Selection and Utilitarian Ethics in Chauncey Wright
Chauncey Wright's Enduring Naturalism
Chauncey Wright
Emergence or Reduction
Science Organized
Morelli, Freud and Sherlock Holmes
Chauncey Wright's Defense of Darwin and the Neutrality of Science
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.43 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2024 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |