Skip to main content

Systems as Emergent Phenomena

  • Chapter
Does the World Exist?

Part of the book series: Analecta Husserliana ((ANHU,volume 79))

  • 320 Accesses

Abstract

The world is populated with entities displaying internal unity and complexity. Organisms, societies and even atoms possess a structure which guarantees their stability as units of which the whole character emerges out of the sum of their parts. All levels of the organization of reality display phenomena1 which share these characteristics, but we do not possess a universal epistemological mechanism to formally deal with their holistic and complex nature. Contemporary science has followed the reductionistic route which Husserl described in The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, and which has continued with the dissection of reality into ever finer levels of detail, leaving aside the phenomenological unity of the objects it studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Dyke, C. The Evolutionary Dynamics of Complex Systems: A Study in Biosocial Complexity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

    Google Scholar 

  • Küppers, B. O. Information and the Origin of Life (Cambridge, USA: The MIT Press, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  • Laszlo, E. “Systems and Structures — Toward Bio-Social Anthropology.” Theory and Decision, 2, 1971. Reproduced in Systems Science & World Order. Ervin Laszlo (ed.) (New York: Pergamon Press, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. Social systems (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995) (Translated by J. Bednarz, Jr. from N. Luhmann, Soziale Systeme: GrundriBeiner allgemeinen Theorie [Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1984]).

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H. R., and E. J. Varela. Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living (Dordrecht, the Netherlands: D. Reidel, 1980).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Prigogine, I., and Stengers, I. Order out of Chaos (New York: Bantam Books, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubio, J. E. “Phenomenology and Levels of Organization in Science,” in A.-T. Tymieniecka (ed.) Life-Truth in its various perspectives (Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  • Salthe, S. N. “Formal considerations on the origin of life.” Uroboros, vol. I, num. 1, (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  • von Bertalanffy, L. Perspectives on General Systems Theory. M. von Bertalanffy (ed.) (New York: George Braziller, Inc. 1975).

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers Inc., 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimsatt, W. C. “Reductionism, Levels of organization, and the Mind-Body problem,” in Globus, G. et al. (eds.): Conciousness and the Brain: a Scientific and Philosophical Inquiry, (New York: Plenum, 1976), pp. 199–267.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Rubio, J.E. (2004). Systems as Emergent Phenomena. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Does the World Exist?. Analecta Husserliana, vol 79. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0047-5_53

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0047-5_53

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3988-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0047-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics