Emergentism is a philosophical approach that has its roots in the ancient Greek philosophy of Aristotle, who argued that certain properties, such as life and consciousness, emerge from the interactions of the parts of a complex system.
Introduced in the 19th century by the philosopher George Henry Lewes. He distinguished between "resultant" and "emergent" properties, where resultant properties could be predicted from the properties of the parts, whereas emergent properties could not. This distinction was crucial in differentiating emergent phenomena from simple aggregative effects
In the 18th century, the philosopher Immanuel Kant also argued for the idea of emergence, proposing that the properties of complex systems cannot be fully explained by the properties of their individual parts. In the early 20th century, the idea of emergence became more prominent in the philosophy of science, particularly in the fields of biology and psychology. Biologists such as C. Lloyd Morgan and G. H. Lewes used the concept of emergence to explain how new properties, such as consciousness and intelligence, could arise from the interactions of simpler elements. The philosopher C. D. Broad was one of the first to explicitly develop an emergentist theory in the early 1920s. Broad argued that certain mental properties, such as consciousness and free will, could not be explained by the physical properties of the brain, but instead emerge from the interactions of the physical components. Emergentism also played a role in the development of systems theory, which emphasizes the study of complex systems and their emergent properties. This approach became popular in the mid-20th century and has been influential in a variety of fields, including physics, biology, and social sciences. Today, emergentism continues to be a topic of discussion and debate in philosophy and other fields, as researchers explore the concept of emergence in relation to complex systems and their properties.
Emergentism is the belief in emergence, particularly as it involves consciousness and the philosophy of mind. A property of a system is said to be emergent if it is a new outcome of some other properties of the system and their interaction, while it is itself different from them. Within the philosophy of science, emergentism is analyzed both as it contrasts with and parallels reductionism. This philosophical theory suggests that higher-level properties and phenomena arise from the interactions and organization of lower-level entities yet are not reducible to these simpler components. It emphasizes the idea that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
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