Downward causation and the autonomy of weak emergence

Principia 6 (1):5-50 (2002)
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Abstract

Weak emergence has been offered as an explication of the ubiquitous notion of emergence used in complexity science (Bedau 1997). After outlining the problem of emergence and comparing weak emergence with the two other main objectivist approaches to emergence, this paper explains a version of weak emergence and illustrates it with cellular automata. Then it explains the sort of downward causation and explanatory autonomy involved in weak emergence

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reprint Bedau, Mark (2002) "Downward Causation and the Autonomy of Weak Emergence". Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 6(1):5–50

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Mark Bedau
Reed College

Citations of this work

Metaphysical emergence: Weak and Strong.Jessica Wilson - 2013 - In Stephen Mumford & Matthew Tugby (eds.), Metaphysics and Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 251-306.
The strong emergence of molecular structure.Vanessa A. Seifert - 2020 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 10 (3):1-25.
Synchronic and diachronic emergence.Paul Humphreys - 2008 - Minds and Machines 18 (4):431-442.

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References found in this work

Real patterns.Daniel C. Dennett - 1991 - Journal of Philosophy 88 (1):27-51.
Weak emergence: Causation and emergence.Ma Bedau - 1997 - Philosophical Perspectives 11:375-399.
A modified concept of consciousness.Roger W. Sperry - 1969 - Psychological Review 76 (6):532-36.

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