RE: What is emergence?

[Keith L. Jenkins]

I'm unsure about the boundaries in the last clause.  Does P really determine
the behavior of O's parts? Isn't P determined by the unpredicted
interactions among O's parts?

-----Original Message-----
From: address@hidden
[mailto:address@hidden Behalf Of Millier, Marc
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2000 9:02 AM
To: address@hidden
Subject: RE: What is emergence?


Timothy O'Conner published a good definition in 1994:

The reference extracted from an excellent paper on emergence by Mark Bedau
(Reed College):
"
Property P is an emergent property of a (mereologically-complex) object O
iff P supervenes on properties of the parts of O, P is not had by any of the
object's parts, P is distinct from any structural property of O, and P has a
direct ("downward") determinative influence on the pattern of behavior
involving O's parts.

O'Conner (pp. 97f) explains that he wants to capture a very strong sense in
which an emergent's causal influence is irreducible to that of the
micro-properties on which it supervenes; it bears its influence in a direct
'downward' fashion, in contrast to the operation of a simple structural
macro-property, whose causal influence occurs via the activity of the
micro-properties which constitute it.
O'Conner, T. 1994. "Emergent Properties." American Philosophical Quarterly
31: 91-104
"

Bedau, M. 1997. "Weak Emergence", Published in:
James Tomberlin, ed., 1997, "Philosophical Perspectives: Mind, Causation,
and World", vol. 11 (Blackwell Publishers), pp. 375-399.

- Marc Millier
** I speak only for myself, Intel does not pay me enough to speak for them
**








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