Physicalism, Emergence and Downward Causation
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In this paper, the development of a defensible and fecund notion of emergence has been dogged by a number of threshold issues neatly highlighted in a recent paper by Jaegwon Kim.Abstract:
The development of a defensible and fecund notion of emergence has been dogged by a number of threshold issues neatly highlighted in a recent paper by Jaegwon Kim. We argue that physicalist assumptions confuse and vitiate the whole project. In particular, his contention that emergence entails supervenience is contradicted by his own argument that the ‘microstructure’ of an object belongs to the whole object, not to its constituents. And his argument against the possibility of downward causation is question-begging and makes false assumptions about causal sufficiency. We argue, on the contrary, for a rejection of the deeply entrenched assumption, shared by physicalists and Cartesians alike, that what basically exists are things (entities, substances). Our best physics tells us that there are no basic particulars, only fields in process. We need an ontology which gives priority to organization, which is inherently relational. Reflection upon the fact that all biological creatures are far-from-equilibrium systems, whose very persistence depend upon their interactions with their environment, reveals incoherence in the notion of an ‘emergence base’.read more
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TL;DR: In this paper, the Shand-McDougall concept of sentiment is taken over and used in the explanation of moral motivation, which is reinforced by social pressures and by religion, treating as an effort of finite man to live in harmony with the infinite reality.
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Emergence: Core ideas and issues
TL;DR: The concept of reduction, which lies at the heart of the emergence idea is explicated, and it is shown how the thesis that emergent properties are irreducible gives a unified account of emergence.
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The interactivist model
TL;DR: It is shown how substance assumptions block genuine ontological emergence, especially the emergence of normativity, and how a process framework permits a thermodynamic-based account of normative emergence.
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Interactivism: A manifesto
TL;DR: The interactivist model has grown over the last several decades from a narrower initial beginning into an evolving systematic theory and underlying philosophy as mentioned in this paper, which has been induced to do so because the underlying assumptions that framed the beginnings of the model were fundamentally different from those that are dominant throughout psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy.
References
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MonographDOI
The quantum theory of fields
TL;DR: Weinberg as discussed by the authors presented a self-contained, up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to supersymmetry, a highly active area of theoretical physics, including supersymmetric algebras.
Journal ArticleDOI
Human MotivationThe Mind in Action: A Study of Motives and Values. A. Campbell Garnett
TL;DR: In this paper, the Shand-McDougall concept of sentiment is taken over and used in the explanation of moral motivation, which is reinforced by social pressures and by religion, treating as an effort of finite man to live in harmony with the infinite reality.