Abstract
This paper explicates two notions of emergencewhich are based on two ways of distinguishinglevels of properties for dynamical systems.Once the levels are defined, the strategies ofcharacterizing the relation of higher level to lower levelproperties as diachronic and synchronic emergenceare the same. In each case, the higher level properties aresaid to be emergent if they are ‘novel’ or ‘irreducible’ with respect to the lower level properties. Novelty andirreducibility are given precise meanings in terms of the effectsthat the change of a bifurcation or perturbation parameterin the system has. (The same strategy can be applied to otherways of separating levels of properties, like themicro/macro distinction.)
The notions of emergence developed here are notions of emergencein a weak sense: the higher level emergent properties wecapture are always structural properties (or are realized insuch properties), that is, they are defined in terms of the lowerlevel properties and their relations. Diachronic and synchronicemergent properties are distinctions within thecategory of structural properties.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, S.: 1920, Space, Time, and Deity, Vol. 2, Macmillan, London.
Arnold, V. I.: 1983, GeometricalMethods in the Theory of Ordinary Differential Equations, Springer, New York.
Batterman, R.W.: 1995, 'Theories between Theories', Synthese 103, 171–201.
Batterman, R.W.: 1997, '“Into a Mist”: Asymptotic Theories on a Caustic', Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 28, 395–413.
Batterman, R.W.: forthcoming, 'Multiple Realizability and Universality', British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Bechtel, W. and R. C. Richardson: 1992, 'Emergent Phenomena and Complex Systems', in A Beckermann et al. (eds), Emergence or Reduction? De Gruyer, Berlin, pp. 257–88.
Bedau, M. A.: 1997, 'Weak Emergence', Philosophical Perspectives 11, 375–99.
Bensoussan, A. et al.: 1978, Asymptotic Analysis for Periodic Structures, North-Holland, Amsterdam.
Berry, M.: 1994, 'Asymptotics, Singularities and the Reduction of Theories', in D. Prawitz et al. (eds), Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, Vol. IX, Elsevier, New York, pp. 597–607.
Cartwright, N.: 1989, Nature's Capacities and Their Measurement, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Chalmers, D.: 1996, The Conscious Mind, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Feigl, H.: 1958, 'The “Mental” and the “Physical”', in H. Feigl et al. (eds), Minnesota Studies 2, 370–497.
Grasman, J.: 1987, Asymptotic Methods for Relaxation Oscillations and Applications, Springer, New York.
Guckenheimer, J. and P. Holmes: 1983, Nonlinear Oscillators, Dynamical Systems, and Bifurcations of Vector Fields, Springer, New York.
Hinch, E. J.: 1991, Perturbation Methods, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Humphreys, P.: 1996a, 'Emergence, not Supervenience', PSA 1996, Vol. II (=Philosophy of Science 64 (1997), Supplement), S337–S345.
Humphreys, P.: 1996b, 'Aspects of Emergence', Philosophical Topics 24, 53–70.
Humphreys, P.: 1997, 'How Properties Emerge', Philosophy of Science 64, 1–17.
Khibnik, A. I. et al.: 1998, 'Phase Model Analysis of Two Lasers with Injected Field', Physica D 111, 295–310.
Kim, J.: 1992, 'Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52, 1–26.
Kim, J.: 1998, Mind in a Physical World, MIT Press, Cambridge. MA.
Kim, J.: 1999, 'Making Sense of Emergence', Philosophical Studies 95, 3–36.
Liu, C.: 1998, 'Explaining the Emergence of Cooperative Phenomena', PSA 1998. Vol. I (=Philosophy of Science 66 (1999), Supplement), S92–S106.
McLaughlin, B.: 1992, 'The Rise and Fall of British Emergentism', in A. Beckermann et al. (eds), Emergence or Reduction? De Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 49-93.
Mishchenko, E. F. and N. Kh. Rozov: 1980, Differential Equations with Small Parameters and Relaxation Oscillations, Plenum Press, New York.
Newman, D. V.: 1996, 'Emergence and Strange Attractors', Philosophy of Science 63, 245–61.
Nickles, T.: 1973, 'Two Concepts of Intertheoretic Reduction', Journal of Philosophy 70, 181–201.
O'Connor, T.: 1994, 'Emergent Properties', American Philosophical Quarterly 31, 91–104.
Primas, H.: 1983, Chemistry, Quantum Mechanics and Reductionism, Springer, Berlin.
Putnam, H.: 1975, 'Philosophy and our Mental Life', in H. Putnam, Mind, Language, and Reality, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 291–303.
Rueger, A.: manuscript, 'Robust Supervenience and Emergence'.
Rueger, A. and W. D. Sharp: 1998, 'Metaphysical Presuppositions of Scientific Practice: Atomism vs. Wholism', Canadian Journal of Philosophy 28, 1–20.
Saunders, P. T.: 1980, An Introduction to Catastrophe Theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Stephan, A.: 1992, 'Emergence - A Systematic View on its Historical Facets, in A. Beckermann et al. (eds), Emergence or Reduction? De Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 25–48.
Tabor, M.: 1989, Chaos and Integrability in Nonlinear Dynamics, John Wiley, New York.
Wilson, M.: 1985, ‘What is This Thing Called “Pain”?’ Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 66, 227–67.
Wilson, M.: 1993, 'Honorable Intensions', in S. J. Wagner et al. (eds), Naturalism: A Critical Appraisal, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, pp. 53-94.
Wimsatt, W.: 1976, 'Reductionism, Levels of Organization, and the Mind-Body Problem', in G. G. Globus et al. (eds), Consciousness and the Brain, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 205-67.
Wimsatt, W.: 1996, 'Aggregativity: Reductive Heuristics for Finding Emergence', PSA 1996, Vol. II (=Philosophy of Science 64 (1997), Supplement), S372–S384.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rueger, A. Physical Emergence, Diachronic And Synchronic. Synthese 124, 297–322 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005249907425
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005249907425