Emergence

A Philosophical Account

Bibliographic Data

ID23766849
AuthorsPaul Humphreys (0000-0003-3431-7930, corresponding author)
Year2016
Publication date2016-12-29
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueEmergence (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190620325.001.0001
OpenAlexW2556279631
ISBN9780190620325
LanguageEN
Citations received31

Paul Humphreys argues that many of the problems affecting accounts of emergence arise from a philosophical tradition overly committed to synchronic reduction, and has been too focused on problems in philosophy of mind. He develops a novel account of diachronic ontological emergence called transformational emergence, shows that it is free of the problems raised in synchronic accounts, gives plausible examples of transformational emergence within physics and chemistry, and explains how the central ideas fit into a well-established historical tradition that includes John Stuart Mill, G. E. Moore, and C. D. Broad. He also provides a comprehensive assessment of current theories of emergence, offering a way into what is by now a very large literature on the topic. The book classifies those theories, provides criteria for emergence, and argues that there is no single unifying account of emergence. Reevaluations of related topics in metaphysics are provided, including fundamentality, physicalism, holism, methodological individualism, and multiple realizability. The relations between scientific and philosophical conceptions of emergence are assessed, with discussion of examples such as self-organization, ferromagnetism, cellular automata, and nonlinear systems.

Epistemology · Holism · Mereology · Metaphysics · Methodological individualism · Physicalism · Political science · Sociology · Transformational leadership · Origins and Evolution of Life · Philosophy · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life

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