[FRIAM] emergence, again

[Nicholas Thompson]

Owen, 

At the risk of further confirming your distaste for philosophy, my problem
is not with SFI types, who by and large seem to accept an Juarrero-esque
take on emergence.  It's those philosophers who are suspicious of it that I
am struggling with.  NOT Wimsatt, by the way who makes perfect sense. Here
is  the kind of problem that bothers philosophers:  let a, b, and c
constitute macro-entity E and let the behavior of E. be controled by the
properties and intereactions of a, b and c.  Now, let one of the behaviors
of E to control the behavior of a, b, or c.  Is there a problem here?  

Nick 

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, 
Clark University (nthompson at clarku.edu)
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/




> [Original Message]
> From: Owen Densmore <owen at backspaces.net>
> To: <nickthompson at earthlink.net>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
> Date: 4/28/2009 9:30:35 PM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] emergence, again
>
> Well, you might also look at Miller/Page's Complex Adaptive Systems  
> book.  It has quite a bit on emergence.  As does our standard source:
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
>
> The Bedau and Humphreys book you've found looked promising.
>
> It's interesting that looking for emergence in Amazon shows several  
> SFI related authors and books.  Holland's Emergence: From Chaos to  
> Order, and Hidden Order both show up, as does Morowitz: The Emergence  
> of Everything, and Strogatz's Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos.
>
> I'd not suggest Yet Another Physics Is Unreal Rant.  Physics is real.   
> I live in it.  "Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts?" sounds  
> fishy.  OK, I'm biased.
>
>      -- Owen
>
>
> On Apr 28, 2009, at 8:38 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
> > I am told on Higher Authority that I cannot think about emergence  
> > any more before I have read the following reference:
> >
> >  Cartwright, Nancy D. "Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts?"  
> > Pacific Philosophy Quarterly, 61, 1980 (pp 64-75).  Reprinted in The  
> > Philosophy of Science Reader,  1980, Yuri V. Balashov (ed).  
> > Routledge Press. Reprinted in Philosophy of Science: The Central  
> > Issues, 1998, Martin Curd and J.A. Cover (ed). Norton & Company Inc.  
> > Also in Readings on Laws of Nature, 2004 J.W.Carroll (ed).  
> > University of Pittsburgh Press.
> >
> > Does anybody have a copy?  Ingenta has it, but they want big bucks  
> > for it.
> >
> > N