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Micro-Determinism and Concepts of Emergence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Robert L. Klee
Robert L. Klee*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Ball State University
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Abstract

Contemporary scientific theories assume a primarily micro-deterministic view of nature. This paper explores the question of whether micro-determinism is incompatible with the alleged emergence of properties and laws that some biologists and philosophers assert occurs in various biological systems. I argue that a preferable unified treatment of these emergence claims takes properties, rather than laws, to be the units of emergence. Four distinct conceptions of emergence are explored and three shown to be compatible with micro-determinism. The remaining concept of emergence, direct macro-determination, does not, I argue, meet the general requirement that an adequate scientific explanation provide a coherent mechanism or effective means of determination.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 1984 , pp. 44 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1984

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Footnotes

†

I wish to thank Jaegwon Kim, Tim McCarthy, Larry Sklar, and two anonymous referees of this journal for their helpful criticism of earlier drafts of this paper.

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