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Co-emergences in life and science: a double proposal for biological emergentism

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Abstract

This article addresses the problem of emergence through a distinction, often neglected in the literature, between two different aspects of this issue: (1) the theoretical problem of providing modelizations able to explain the expression of emergent properties; (2) the epistemological problem of warranting the scientific value of the emergentist descriptions of nature. This paper considers this double issue with regard to the biological domain, and proposes a double solution (theoretical and epistemological) originally developed in early studies on self-organization. The underlying hypothesis is that this solution offers the current biological emergentism the opportunity of developing a coherent structure: matching consistently the theoretical and the epistemological frames of the research, that is, coupling the emergentist conception of life with an emergentist conception of science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adaptive Systems Research Group, E122, School of Computer Science and STRI, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AB, UK

    Luisa Damiano

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  1. Luisa Damiano
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Correspondence to Luisa Damiano.

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This article was written while L. Damiano was working at the Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences

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Ritsumeikan University, 56-1 Kitamachi, Toji-in, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603-8577, Japan.

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Damiano, L. Co-emergences in life and science: a double proposal for biological emergentism. Synthese 185, 273–294 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9725-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9725-3

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