Emergence and Explanation
from MCMP – Philosophy of Science
Peter Wyss (Oxford) gives a talk at the MCMP conference "Reduction and Emergence in the Sciences" (14-16 November, 2013) titled "Emergence and Explanation". Abstract: The notion of emergence has acquired explanatory power in relation to the mind–body problem. It seems that we explain something when we say that consciousness emerges from brain function, or that mind emerges from matter. I criticise this (puzzling) intuition, and hence 'epistemic emergence'. I argue that 'explanations' in terms of emergence are incoherent at worst; and at best, they make explicit our ignorance. Some explanatory punch can be rescued only if emergence is ontologised. I sketch such an approach. Although more substantial than many of the current discussions, it gets an explanatory grip on two central features of emergence, viz. novelty and irreducibility.
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