Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Emergence, Self-Transcendence, and Education

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Complex Dynamical Systems in Education

Abstract

Emergence refers to the arising of unpredictable, nondeductible, and irreducible coherent structures, patterns, and properties in complex systems. Emergent phenomena are understood as collectivities or integrations occurring on a macro-level emerging out of less integrated substrates on a micro-level. The construct of emergence is turned to when the dynamics of a system can be better understood by focusing on across-system organization rather than by decomposition into parts.

As the sciences of complex systems have rapidly expanded over the past three decades, the study of emergence has come forward as one of the most vital areas of research and theorizing, a dramatic shift from hovering on the edge of credibility as it was in the past to being embraced currently across a wide range of sciences and related fields of study.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
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

References

  • Anderson, P. W. (1972). More is different: Broken symmetry and the nature of the hierarchical structure of science. Science, 177(4047), 393–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, F. R. (2009). William James on the stream of consciousness: All the evidence. Bloomington, IN: Iuniverse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergson, H. (1911). Creative Evolution. (from French Evolution Créatrice, 1908). Trans. A. Mitchell. NY: Henry Holt and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertoft, H. (1996). The wholeness of nature: Goethe’s way toward a science of conscious participation in nature. Lindisfarne, UK: Lindisfarne Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blitz, D. (1992). Emergent evolution: Qualitative novelty and the levels of reality. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Butterfield, J. (2001). Emergence, reduction and supervenience: A varied landscape. Foundations of Physics, 41(6), 920–959.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronk, G. (2005). Herbert Mead (1863—1931). Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved June 3, 2015 from http://www.iep.utm.edu/mead/.

  • Da Costa, N. (1974). On the theory of inconsistent formal systems. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 15, 497–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Da Costa, N. (2000). Paraconsistent mathematics. In I. D. Batens et al. (Eds.), Frontiers of paraconsistent logic (pp. 165–180). Hertfordshire, UK: Research Studies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darley, V. (1994). Emergent phenomena and complexity. In R. A. Brooks & P. Maes (Eds.), Artificial Life IV: Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (pp. 411–416).

    Google Scholar 

  • Desmonde, W. (1967). H. Mead, George Herbert (1863-1931). In Donald M. Borchert (a cura di), Encyclopedia of philosophy, vol. 6, Macmillan Reference [1967], 2006, pp. 79–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Hani, C. N. & Pihlström, S. (2002). Emergence theories and pragmatic realism. Essays in Philosophy, 3(2), Article 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganeri, J. (2011). Emergentisms, ancient and modern. Mind, 120, 671–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganeri, J. (2012). The self: Naturalism, consciousness, and the first-person stance. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gillett, C. (2006). Samuel Alexander’s emergentism. Synthese, 153(2), 261–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilson, E. (1984). From Aristotle to Darwin and back again: A journey in final causality, species, and evolution. (Trans. J. Lyon). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glansdorf, P., & Prigogine, I. (1971). Thermodynamic theory of structure, stability and fluctuations. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (1999). Emergence as a construct: History and issues. Emergence, 1(1), 49–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2002). The singular nature of emergent levels: Suggestions for a theory of emergence. Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, 6(4), 293–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2004a). A New Metaphysics for Emergence, 2nd International Workshop on Complexity and Philosophy. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Federal University. Retrieved November 18–19, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2004b). Experientialism and its limitations in whitehead’s metaphysics of emergence: How the study of complex systems can help. Paper presented at Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences 14th Annual International Conference Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. Retrieved July 15–18, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2006). Emergence, creative process, and self-transcending constructions. In K. A. Richardson (Ed.), Managing organizational complexity: Philosophy, theory, and application (pp. 63–78). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2007a). Emergence and psychological morphogenesis, In J. Muller, J. Brent, & C. Piers (Eds.), Self-organizing complexity in psychological systems (pp. 111–134). New York: Jason Aronson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2007b). ‘Emergence and identity’: The past is not what it used to be: An introduction to Mead’s emergentism. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 9, 75–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2011a). Probing the nature of complex systems: Parameters, modeling, interventions—part 1. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 13(3), 94–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2011b). Emergence in complex systems. In P. Allen, S. Maguire, & B. McKelvey (Eds.), The Sage handbook on complexity and management (pp. 65–78). London, UK: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. (2014). Reimagining emergence, part 3: Uncomputability, transformation, and self-transcending constructions. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 16(2), 116–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haken, H. (2011). Self-organization. Scholarpedia. Retrieved April 3, 2015 from http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Self-organization.

  • Kauffman, S. (1995). At home in the Universe: The search for the laws of self-organization and complexity. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E. F. (2008a). Organisms, machines, and thunderstorms: A history of self-organization, part one. Historical Studies in the Natural Science, 38(1), 45–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E. F. (2008b). Organisms, machines, and thunderstorms: A history of self-organization, part two. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 39(1), 1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lichtenstein, B. (2014). Generative emergence. A new discipline of organizational, entrepreneurial, and social innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Melhuish, G. (1973). The paradoxical nature of reality. Rochester, NY: St. Vincent’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Priest, G. (2002). Beyond the limits of thought. London, UK: Clarendon.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sainsbury, R. M. (2008). Paradoxes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, K. (1990). The diagonal argument and the liar. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 19, 277–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strawson, G., et al. (2006). Consciousness and its place in nature: Does physicalism entail panpsychism? Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimsatt, W. C. (1997). Aggregativity: Reductive heuristics for finding emergence. Philosophy of Science, 64, Supplement. Part II: Symposia Papers (Dec., 1997), S372–S384.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, 11530, USA

    Jeffrey Goldstein

Authors
  1. Jeffrey Goldstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey Goldstein .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, New York, USA

    Matthijs Koopmans

  2. Department of Philosophy and Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Dimitrios Stamovlasis

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Goldstein, J. (2016). Emergence, Self-Transcendence, and Education. In: Koopmans, M., Stamovlasis, D. (eds) Complex Dynamical Systems in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27577-2_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27577-2_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27575-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27577-2

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation