Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Emergence

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible

Definition

Emergence (EM) denotes a wide variety of phenomena – studied by numerous disciplines in natural and human sciences – where new processes, interactions, entities, and properties are claimed to be observed, characteristic for higher levels of complexity of matter and irreducible to their lower-level constituents. Playing central role in systems theory and theories of integrative levels, emergentism aspires to become one of the important categories within scientific explanation as it is understood today. As such, it departs from both strict holism and reductionism. Whereas the former assumes that we cannot infer anything concerning higher-level phenomena from the analysis of their parts, the latter argues there is nothing new about wholes, which would not already be present in their parts. Forging a middle ground between these two extreme positions, the term and the theory of EM designate the all-encompassing range of potentialities (possibilities) and dispositions of matter...

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alexander, S. (1920). Space, time, and deity. Gifford lectures 1916–18. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

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

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aristotle. (2001). Metaphysics, W.D. Ross, Trans. In R. McKeon (Ed.), The basic works of Aristotle (pp. 681–926). New York: The Modern Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, D. M. (1978). Universals and scientific realism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Broad, C. D. (1925). The mind and its place in nature. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunge, M. (1980). The mind-body problem: A psychobiological approach. Oxford/New York: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, D. T. (1974). ‘Downward causation’ in hierarchically organized biological systems. In F. J. Ayala & T. Dobzhansky (Eds.), Studies in the philosophy of biology: Reduction and related problems (pp. 179–186). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, R. (2015). The metaphysics of emergence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, J. W. (2016). Laws of nature. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laws-of-nature/. Accessed 6 May 2020.

  • Chalmers, D. J. (2006). Strong and weak emergence. In P. Clayton & P. Davis (Eds.), The re-emergence of emergence: The Emergentist hypothesis from science to religion (pp. 244–254). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clayton, P. (2004). Mind and emergence: From quantum to consciousness. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, T. W. (2006). Emergence: The hole at the Wheel’s hub. In P. Clayton & P. Davis (Eds.), The re-emergence of emergence: The Emergentist hypothesis from science to religion (pp. 111–150). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, T. W. (2012). Incomplete nature: How mind emerged from matter. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emmeche, C., Køppe, S., & Stjernfelt, F. (1997). Explaining emergence: Toward an ontology of levels. Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 28(1), 83–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emmeche, C., Køppe, S., & Stjernfelt, F. (2000). Levels, emergence, and three versions of downward causation. In P. B. Andersen, C. Emmeche, N. O. Finnemann, & P. V. Christiansen (Eds.), Downward causation: Mind, bodies and matter (pp. 13–34). Aarhus/Oxford: Aarhus University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillett, C. (2003). Non-reductive realization and non-reductive identity: What physicalism does not entail. In S. Walter & H.-D. Heckmann (Eds.), Physicalism and mental causation: The metaphysics of mind and action (pp. 23–49). Charlottesville: Imprint Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasker, W. (1999). The emergent self. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulswit, M. (2006). How causal is downward causation? Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 36(2), 261–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys, P. (1997). Emergence, Not Supervenience. Philosophy of Science, 64, S337–S345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys, P. (2016). Emergence: A philosophical account. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Juarrero, A. (1999). Dynamics in action: Intentional behavior as a complex system. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (1990). Supervenience as a philosophical concept. Metaphilosophy, 21(1–2), 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (1998). Mind in a physical world: An essay on the mind-body problem and mental causation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (1999). Making sense of emergence. Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, 95, 3–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (2006). Emergence: Core ideas and issues. Synthese, 151(3), 547–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kripke, S. A. (1980). Naming and necessity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laughlin, R. B. (2005). A different universe: Reinventing physics from the bottom down. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laughlin, R. B., & Pines, D. (2000). The theory of everything. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(1), 28–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewes, G. H. (1875). Problems of life and mind. London: Trübner & co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. (1969). Convention. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lushi, E., Wioland, H., & Goldstein, R. E. (2014). Fluid flows created by swimming bacteria drive self-organization in confined suspensions. PNAS. https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/06/20/1405698111.

  • McGivern, P., & Rueger, A. (2010). Emergence in physics. In A. Corradini & T. O’Connor (Eds.), Emergence in science and philosophy (pp. 213–232). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, B., & Bennett, K. (2014). Supervenience. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/supervenience/. Accessed 6 May 2020.

  • Mill, J. S. (1846). A system of logic. New York/London: Harper & Brothers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moreno, A., & Umerez, J. (2000). Downward causation at the Core of living organization. In P. B. Andersen, C. Emmeche, N. O. Finnemann, & P. V. Christiansen (Eds.), Downward causation: Mind, bodies and matter (pp. 99–116). Aarhus/Oxford: Aarhus University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, C. L. (1923). Emergent Evolution. London: Williams and Norgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morowitz, H. J. (2002). The emergence of everything: How the world became complex. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagel, E. (1961). The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicolis, G., & Prigogine, I. (1977). Self-Organization in Nonequilibrium Systems: From dissipative structures to order through fluctuations. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, T. (2000). Persons and causes: The metaphysics of free will. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paoletti, M. P., & Orilia, F. (2017a). Downward causation: An opinionated introduction. In M. P. Paoletti & F. Orilia (Eds.), Philosophical and scientific perspectives on downward causation (pp. 1–21). New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Paoletti, M. P., & Orilia, F. (Eds.). (2017b). Philosophical and scientific perspectives on downward causation. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, G. R. (2006). Species of emergence. Zygon, 41(3), 689–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. R. (1977). The self and its brain. Berlin: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Quine, W. V. O. (1981). Theories and things. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silberstein, M. (2006). In defence of ontological emergence and mental causation. In P. Clayton & P. Davis (Eds.), The re-emergence of emergence: The Emergentist hypothesis from science to religion (pp. 203–226). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smart, J. J. C. (1981). Physicalism and emergence. Neuroscience, 6, 109–113.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry, R. W. (1986). Discussion: Macro- versus micro-determinism. Philosophy of Science, 53, 265–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tabaczek, M. (2019). Emergence: Towards a new metaphysics and philosophy of science. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy

    Mariusz Tabaczek

  2. Thomistic Institute, Warsaw, Poland

    Mariusz Tabaczek

Authors
  1. Mariusz Tabaczek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mariusz Tabaczek .

Section Editor information

  1. No affiliation provided

    Izabela Lebuda

Electronic Supplementary Martials

Self-organization of bacteria – due to steric interactions among them and hydrodynamic flows they generate by swimming – into a steady single-vortex state encircled by a counterrotating cell boundary layer, with spiral cell orientation within the vortex (author: Hugo Wioland, in Lushi et al. 2014) (AVI 10127 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Tabaczek, M. (2020). Emergence. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_149-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_149-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98390-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98390-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation