Emergence. Contemporary Readings in Philosophy and Science

Emergence, largely ignored just thirty years ago, has become one of the liveliest areas of research in both philosophy and science. Fueled in part by advances in complexity theory, artificial life, physics, psychology, sociology, and biology and by the parallel development of new conceptual tools in philosophy, the idea of emergence offers a way to understand a wide variety of complex phenomena in ways that are intriguingly different from more traditional approaches. This reader collects for the first time in one easily accessible place classic writings on emergence from contemporary philosophy and science. The chapters, by such prominent scholars as John Searle, Stephen Weinberg, William Wimsatt, Thomas Schelling, Jaegwon Kim, Robert Laughlin, Daniel Dennett, Herbert Simon, Stephen Wolfram, Jerry Fodor, Philip Anderson, and David Chalmers, cover the major approaches to emergence. Each of the three sections ("Philosophical Perspectives," "Scientific Perspectives," and "Background and Polemics") begins with an introduction putting the chapters into context and posing key questions for further exploration. A bibliography lists more specialized material, and an associated website (http://mitpress.mit.edu/emergence) links to downloadable software and to other sites and publications about emergence.

Contributors: P. W. Anderson, Andrew Assad, Nils A. Baas, Mark A. Bedau, Mathieu S. Capcarrère, David Chalmers, James P. Crutchfield, Daniel C. Dennett, J. Doyne Farmer, Jerry Fodor, Carl Hempel, Paul Humphreys, Jaegwon Kim, Robert B. Laughlin, Bernd Mayer, Brian P. McLaughlin, Ernest Nagel, Martin Nillson, Michael W. Olesen, Paul Oppenheim, Norman H. Packard, David Pines, Steen Rasmussen, Edmund M. A. Ronald, Thomas Schelling, John Searle, Robert S. Shaw, Herbert Simon, Moshe Sipper, Stephen Weinberg, William Wimsatt, and Stephen Wolfram

I Philosophical Perspectives on Emergence 7
Introduction to Philosophical Perspectives on Emergence
1 The Rise and Fall of British Emergentism Brian P. McLaughlin 19
2 On the Idea of Emergence Carl Hempel and Paul Oppenheim 61
3 Reductionism and the Irreducibility of Consciousness John R. Searle 69
4 Emergence and Supervenience Brian P. McLaughlin 81
5 Aggregativity: Reductive Heuristics for Finding Emergence William C. Wimsatt 99
6 How Properties Emerge Paul Humphreys 111
7 Making Sense of Emergence Jaegwon Kim 127
8 Downward Causation and Autonomy in Weak Emergence Mark A. Bedau 155
9 Real Patterns Daniel C. Dennett 189
II Scientific Perspectives on Emergence 207
Introduction to Scientific Perspectives on Emergence 10 More Is Different: Broken Symmetry and the Nature of the Hierarchical Structure of Science P. W. Anderson 221
Emergence Andrew Assad and Norman H. Packard 231
12 Sorting and Mixing: Race and Sex Thomas Schelling 235
13 Alternative Views of Complexity Herbert Simon 249
14 The Theory of Everything Robert B. Laughlin and Davide Pines 259
15 Is Anything Ever New? Considering Emergence James P. Crutchfield 269
16 Design, Observation, Surprise! A Test of Emergence Edmund M. A. Ronald, Moshe Sipper and Mathieu S. Capcarrère 287
17 Ansatz for Dynamical Hierarchies Steen Rasmussen, Nils A. Baas, Bernd Mayer and Martin Nillson 305
III Background and Polemics 335
Introduction to Background and Polemics 18 Newtonianism, Reductionism, and the Art of Congressional Testimony Stephen Weinberg 345
19 Issues in the Logic of Reductive Explanations Ernest Nagel 359
20 Chaos James P. Crutchfield, J. Doyne Farmer, Norman H. Packard and Robert S. Shaw 375
21 Undecidability and Intractability in Theoretical Physics Stephen Wolfram 387
22 Special Sciences (Or: The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis) Jerry Fodor 395
23 Supervenience David J. Chalmers 411
24 The Nonreductivist’´s Troubles with Mental Causation Jaegwon Kim 427
Annotated Bibliography 447