Knowledge Tree
emergentism
Facts (38)
Sources
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2015 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 16 facts
claimDemocritus proposed a form of emergentism based on the possibility of multi-shaped atoms interlocking to form an infinity of more complex shapes.
perspectiveThomas Nagel argues that the only coherent form of emergentism is an epistemological doctrine regarding the limits of human understanding of complex system behavior.
claimThe argument presented by Thomas Nagel regarding panpsychism is criticized for lacking proof that a more radical form of emergentism is impossible.
claimAlfred North Whitehead represents the culmination of nineteenth-century panpsychist thinking, with his work appearing simultaneously with the development of emergentism by thinkers such as C. Lloyd Morgan and C. D. Broad.
claimThomas Nagel, in his 1979 article 'Panpsychism,' argues that emergentism fails as a metaphysical relation, which he links to the necessity of panpsychism.
claimPanpsychism and emergentism are the two primary philosophical positions that offer a potential integration of the mind into the scientific picture of the physical world.
claimThe debate between panpsychism and emergentism represents a fundamental distinction in how humans understand the world, contrasting the view that mind is an elemental feature of the world against the view that mind emerges from simpler, non-fundamental properties.
claimPanpsychism asserts that mind suffuses the universe, which contrasts with emergentism, which asserts that mind appears only at specific times and places under rare conditions.
accountC. Lloyd Morgan, a radical emergentist, retreated into a Spinozistic parallelism of mind and matter due to concerns regarding the emergence of consciousness.
claimEmergentism is the doctrine that fundamental physical entities (such as quarks, leptons, or bosons) lack mental attributes, but complex systems of these entities (such as human brains) possess mental attributes.
claimEmergentists bear the burden of either providing a clear explanation for the emergence of consciousness from physical features or convincing others to accept that mental properties are conditioned by complex physical states in an inexplicable way.
perspectivePanpsychism possesses a metaphysical advantage over emergentism because it avoids the difficulty of explaining how consciousness emerges from matter and the risk of making emergent features causally impotent or epiphenomenal.
claimThe assumption that unobservable and hypothetical entities postulated by physics are entirely real and constitute the ontological foundation of the world is a central premise for distinguishing emergentism from panpsychism.
claimEmergentism was the dominant philosophical view regarding consciousness during the twentieth century, appearing in a wide variety of forms.
claimThe 'cognitive revolution' has sparked a burst of scientific and philosophical studies of the mind, which has rekindled the debate between emergentism and panpsychism.
claimPanpsychism posits a fundamental unity in the world, a concept that emergentism denies.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 10 facts
claimThe current scientific worldview and a general disinclination toward dualistic and idealistic metaphysics have led to the dominance of emergentism, making the assessment of theories of emergent mentality a key issue.
perspectivePanpsychism rejects physicalist reductionism, supports the search for neural correlates of consciousness, and posits a fundamental unity in the world that emergentism denies.
claimEmergentism faces the challenge of explaining how consciousness emerges from matter without rendering emergent features causally impotent or epiphenomenal.
claimEmergentism was the dominant philosophical position regarding the mind-body problem during the twentieth century.
referenceSilberstein and McGeever (1999) propose an approach using the theory of emergence from quantum mechanics to support traditional emergentism, where mind develops from non-mental aspects of nature.
claimEmergentism is the philosophical position that mentality is a feature of systems of non-mentalistic entities, rather than a property placed at the very foundation of the world.
claimIf a 'world-mind' is conditioned by the structure of non-mentalistic parts, the theory risks collapsing into a form of emergentism.
claimEmpedocles proposed an emergentist account of the world based on the doctrine of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water.
claimPhilosophers attempting to integrate the mind into the physical world face a dilemma between choosing emergentism or panpsychism.
claimThe view that emergentism is distinct from panpsychism relies on the assumption that the unobservable and hypothetical entities postulated by physics are entirely real and constitute the ontological foundation of the world.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 18, 2017 2 facts
claimNon-constitutive panpsychism typically takes the form of emergentism, where the conscious minds of humans and animals arise as a causal product of interactions between micro-level conscious subjects.
perspectiveDavid Papineau (2001) argues that neuroscience and cellular biology show no evidence of distinctive causal powers associated with biological consciousness, which counts against emergentism of any kind.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 2 facts
claimEmergentism describes any form of dualism that posits consciousness is causally produced by the brain or other physical configurations, distinguishing it from views where consciousness has other origins, such as being directly created or transferred into the physical world by God.
claimThe term 'emergentism' is ambiguous because it is used to describe various kinds of physicalism, as well as views that are indeterminate between physicalism and dualism.
Six Theories of Consciousness - Mind Matters mindmatters.ai Mar 2, 2026 2 facts
claimEmergentism is the theory that consciousness is not a basic feature of nature but arises when a physical system, such as a brain or computer, achieves a sufficient level of complexity and organized connections.
quoteGeorge Gilder refers to the belief that artificial general intelligence will arise from emergentism as the 'rapture of the nerds.'
The Compatibility of Christianity with Panpsychism, Part 1 theologycommons.gcu.edu Sep 2, 2025 1 fact
referenceBrandon Rickabaugh and J.P. Moreland argue in 'The Substance of Consciousness' that emergentism is a non-reductionist theory that should be classified as substance dualist.
Hard problem of consciousness - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
referenceMartine Nida-Rümelin authored the chapter 'Dualist Emergentism' in the book 'Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Mind', published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2006.
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
claimPanpsychism is incompatible with emergentism, as theories of consciousness generally fall under one of two umbrellas: either consciousness is present at a fundamental level (panpsychism) or it emerges as a higher-order phenomenon from the interaction of fundamental parts (emergentism).
Do all non-physicalist theories of consciousness face the interaction ... philosophy.stackexchange.com Nov 17, 2025 1 fact
perspectiveMcLaughlin's argument regarding reductionism is reasonable because two dramatic successes of reductionism in areas where emergentists previously thought reduction was impossible would significantly challenge the validity of emergentism.
PANPSYCHISM (Philosophy of Mind Series) - Amazon.com amazon.com 1 fact
quoteAchim Stephan concludes that emergentism lacks an answer for how complex organisms without experiential features instantiate phenomenal experiences, whereas panpsychism attributes primitive mental properties to the basic entities of nature.
Cross-Cultural Approaches to Consciousness: Mind, Nature, and ... books.google.com 1 fact
claimThe book 'Cross-Cultural Approaches to Consciousness: Mind, Nature, and Ultimate Reality' explores metaphysical and cognitive concepts including Panpsychism, cosmopsychism, illusionism, emergentism, and idealism.