High level properties such as temperature, hardness or roundness are multiply realized: they are shared by systems with different microphysical makeups. Such properties are multiple realization (MR) emergent in the sense that they provide useful explanations independent of the details of their makeup. But MR emergence is everywhere and fails as a useful definition. It is everywhere because it is the nature of conceptual thought to abstract from detail. Studying multiply realized phenomena tells us much more about the nature of our cognition than it does about the nature of the world. Advocates of MR emergence assert that it prevents reduction. However the opposite is true, reductive physics explains how high level properties can be multiply realized.

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Weak Emergence: One from Many

  • Liam Graham

摘要

High level properties such as temperature, hardness or roundness are multiply realized: they are shared by systems with different microphysical makeups. Such properties are multiple realization (MR) emergent in the sense that they provide useful explanations independent of the details of their makeup. But MR emergence is everywhere and fails as a useful definition. It is everywhere because it is the nature of conceptual thought to abstract from detail. Studying multiply realized phenomena tells us much more about the nature of our cognition than it does about the nature of the world. Advocates of MR emergence assert that it prevents reduction. However the opposite is true, reductive physics explains how high level properties can be multiply realized.