An Explication of Emergence
from MCMP – Philosophy of Science
Elanor Taylor (Iowa) gives a talk at the MCMP conference "Reduction and Emergence in the Sciences" (14-16 November, 2013) titled "An Explication of Emergence". Abstract: There is a consensus in contemporary philosophy that debates about emergence are confused and messy. In this paper I offer a unified explication of emergence, and argue that this explication can cut through the confusion evident in discussions of emergence. I argue that the best way to understand the concept of emergence is as the unavailability of a certain kind of scientific explanation for an observer or observers. According to this perspectival account of emergence, emergence (the unavailability of a certain kind of scientific explanation for an observer or observers) can track a range of different metaphysical and epistemic relations.
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