All, As you all may remember, I had decided on the basis of my first two readings of Wimsatt, that his was the final word on the definition of emergence: a property of a macro-entity is emergent when it depends on the arrangement of the micro entities [in time and/or in space]. Unfortunately, I read it a third time.
I woke up in the middle of the night realizing what was wrong with his position. (1) Ineliminably, emergence has to do with the relation between macro and micro entities. (I suppose somebody might challange that statement, but I dont think anybody has so far.) (2) Emergent properties of a macro entity are those that are dependant on the arrangement of the micro entities. (3) But "An arrangement of X's" cannot be a property of any microentity (duh!). (4) There fore, whatever (2) IS a definition of, it cannot be a definition of emergence OR emergence does not have to do with relations among levels. Back to the old drawing board. n Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([email protected]) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 9:33 PM, Nicholas Thompson > <[email protected]> wrote: > > All, > > > > the third meeting of the emergence seminar is tomorrow at 4pm at DS. The > > readings are Searle's REDUCTIONISM AND THE IRREDUCIBILITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS > > and wimsatt's AGREGATIVITY: REDUCTIVE HEURISTICS FOR FINDING EMERGENCE both > > from Bedau and Humphreys, EMERGENCE. > > > > I think the chief challange of our discussions will be trying to figure out > > the degree to which the two authors agree. I was startled on second reading > > at the degree to which they agree on what constitutes emergence. > > > > SEARLE "...some other system features cannot be figured out just from the > > compositoin of the elements and environmental relationws; they have to be > > explained in terms of the causal interactions among the elements. Let's > > call these 'causally emergent system features.'" > > > > WIMSAT " An emergent property is --roughly-- a system property which is > > dependent upon the mode of organization of the system's parts". > > > > These two definitions are by no means the same, but both allow for emergence > > to be a common place. > > > > The two seem also to have similar views of what constitutes reduction. > > Searle goes to the trouble to explicate five different kinds of reduction, > > but in the end, he lights on "causal reduction", in part because it often > > leads to the other kinds. > > > > SEARLE : A causal reduction has taken place when "the causal powers of the > > reduced entity [i.e., the macro-level entity] are shown to be entirely > > explainable in thers of the causal powers of the reducing phenomena [i.e., > > the micro-level phenomena]" Odd that he changes from entity to phenomena in > > mid definition, but I am supposed to be avoiding editorial comment here. > > > > WIMSAT: .... a reductive explanation of a behavior or a property of a > > system is one showing it to be mechanistically explainable in terms of the > > properties of and interactions among the parts of the system." A lot would > > seem to hang on the word "mechanistically" here, so I looked it up in web > > dictionary of philosophical terms. maintained by garth kemerling: > > > > mechanism > > > > Belief that science can explain all natural phenomena in terms of the causal > > interactions among material particles, without any reference to intelligent > > agency or purpose. As employed by Descartes and Hobbes, mechanism offered an > > alternative to the scholastic reliance on explanatory appeals to final > > causes. > > > > Is there anybody out there who is reading along with us???? > > > > Nick > > > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, > > Clark University ([email protected]) > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > > > > > > > ============================================================ > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
