Emergent Evolution Qualitative Novelty and the Levels of Reality

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D. Blitz Emergent Evolution Qualitative Novelty and the Levels of Reality Series: Episteme, Vol. 19 Emergent evolution combines three separate but related claims, whose background, origin, and development I trace in this work: firstly, that evolution is a universal process of change, one which is productive of qualitative novelties; secondly, that qualitative novelty is the emergence in a system of a property not possessed by any of its parts; and thirdly, that reality can be analyzed into levels, each consisting of systems characterized by significant emergent properties. In part one I consider the background to emergence in the 19th century discussion of the philosophy of evolution among its leading exponents in England - Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, T. H. Huxley, Alfred Russel Wallace, and G. J. Romanes. Unlike the scientific aspect of the debate which aimed to determine the factors and causal mechanism of biological evolution, this aspect of the debate centered on more general problems which form what I call the "philosophical framework for evolutionary theory." This considers the status of continuity and discontinuity in evolution, the role of qualitative and quantitative factors in change, the relation between the organic and the 1992, IX, 241 p. inorganic, the relation between the natural and the supernatural, the mind-body problem, and the scope of evolution, including its extension to ethics and morals. Printed book Hardcover ▶ 149,99 € | £129.99 | $179.99 ▶ *160,49 € (D) | 164,99 € (A) | CHF 177.00 eBook Available from your bookstore or ▶ springer.com/shop MyCopy Printed eBook for just ▶ € | $ 24.99 ▶ springer.com/mycopy Order online at springer.com ▶ or for the Americas call (toll free) 1-800-SPRINGER ▶ or email us at: [email protected]. ▶ For outside the Americas call +49 (0) 6221-345-4301 ▶ or email us at: [email protected]. The first € price and the £ and $ price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted..

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Template: Royal A, Font: , Date: 11/07/2011; 3B2 version: 9.1.406/W Unicode (May 24 2007) (APS_OT) Dir: //integrafs1/kcg/2-Pagination/TandF/RCRS/ApplicationFiles/9780415492447.3d 3URRI (iii) Complexity, emergence, and eliminativism 7D\ORU )UDQFLV 1RWIRUGLVWULEXWLRQ 3URRI Template: Royal A, Font: , Date: 11/07/2011; 3B2 version: 9.1.406/W Unicode (May 24 2007) (APS_OT) Dir: //integrafs1/kcg/2-Pagination/TandF/RCRS/ApplicationFiles/9780415492447.3d 3URRI 7D\ORU )UDQFLV 1RWIRUGLVWULEXWLRQ 3URRI Template: Royal A, Font: , Date: 11/07/2011; 3B2 version: 9.1.406/W Unicode (May 24 2007) (APS_OT) Dir: //integrafs1/kcg/2-Pagination/TandF/RCRS/ApplicationFiles/9780415492447.3d 3URRI 18 ELIMINATIVISM, COMPLEXITY, AND EMERGENCE Terrence Deacon and Tyrone Cashman The emergence paradox The evolutionary perspective turned the classic worldview on its head. Since Roman times, the world was understood to be hierarchic in structure, explained by a transcen- dent mind at the top. From there, the great chain of being cascaded down through angels, humans, frogs, protozoa, and finally stones. Inverting the chain of being switched mind from being7D\ORU )UDQFLV the ultimate explanation of things, to being the mystery to be explained. As an early critic of Darwin protested, this theory assumes that “Absolute Ignorance” is the ultimate artificer, even of life and mind (MacKenzie 1868). However, the1RWIRUGLVWULEXWLRQ notion that the distinctive properties of life and mind were pro- duced by a blind mechanism from inanimate matter runs counter to a fundamental assumption of Western thought. It is expressed in the oft-quoted dictum of the Roman poet–scientist Lucretius: “ex nihilo nihil fit,” from nothing, nothing [can be] produced (1994 [n.d.]).
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