Emergence of the Human

Here I suggest how naturalistic emergence can begin to provide a solution to the so far insoluble freedom and determinism conundrum. As a systemic property of the organism, freedom is grounded in the sui generis experience of subjectivity, emerging with the evolutionary development of living organisms by natural selection. I then conclude by summarizing two fundamental theoretical critiques and then suggesting one important theoretical consequence. The critiques are of the scientific role of the linear deductive model of explanation first systematized by Aristotle, and of the Cartesian methodological assumption of the reality of separability—both of which would effectively rule out, in principle, the possibility of ontological emergence. I claim, therefore, that any potentially adequate scientific theory of society will henceforth have to consider the manner in which the subjects “tell their story,” thus scientifically grounding a dramatic and existential interpretation of individual and social life. Such a life can only take form, structure, meaning, and direction within the meaning frame of the ongoing drama of a specific historically institutionalized culture.