Minds and Machines 18 (4):493-520 (2008)
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Abstract |
I investigate the relationship between adaptation, as defined in evolutionary theory through natural selection, and the concept of emergence. I argue that there is an essential correlation between the former, and “emergence” defined in the field of algorithmic simulations. I first show that the computational concept of emergence (in terms of incompressible simulation) can be correlated with a causal criterion of emergence (in terms of the specificity of the explanation of global patterns). On this ground, I argue that emergence in general involves some sort of selective processes. Finally, I show that a second criterion, concerning novel explanatory regularities following the emergence of a pattern, captures the robustness of emergence displayed by some cases of emergence (according to the first criterion). Emergent processes fulfilling both criteria are therefore exemplified in evolutionary biology by some so-called “innovations”, and mostly by the new units of fitness or new kinds of adaptations (like sexual reproduction, multicellular organisms, cells, societies) sometimes called “major transitions in evolution”, that recent research programs (Maynard-Smith and Szathmary 1995 ; Michod 1999 ) aims at explaining.
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Keywords | Adaptation Causation Cellular automata Emergence Evolutionary transitions Macrostates Robustness |
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DOI | 10.1007/s11023-008-9121-7 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus.Elliott Sober - 1984 - University of Chicago Press.
The Origins of Order: Self Organization and Selection in Evolution.Stuart A. Kauffman - 1993 - Oxford University Press.
Extending Ourselves: Computational Science, Empiricism, and Scientific Method.Paul Humphreys - 2004 - Oxford University Press.
The Devil in the Details: Asymptotic Reasoning in Explanation, Reduction, and Emergence.Robert W. Batterman - 2001 - Oxford University Press.
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Citations of this work BETA
A Bridge Too Far – Revisited: Reframing Bruer’s Neuroeducation Argument for Modern Science of Learning Practitioners.Jared C. Horvath & Gregory M. Donoghue - 2016 - Frontiers in Psychology 7.
Determinism, Predictability and Open-Ended Evolution: Lessons From Computational Emergence.Philippe Huneman - 2012 - Synthese 185 (2):195-214.
Emergence Made Ontological? Computational Versus Combinatorial Approaches.Philippe Huneman - 2008 - Philosophy of Science 75 (5):595-607.
Mapping an Expanding Territory: Computer Simulations in Evolutionary Biology.Philippe Huneman - 2014 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 36 (1):60-89.
View all 8 citations / Add more citations
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