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Weak Emergence
Author(s) -
Bedau Mark A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
noûs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.574
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1468-0068
pISSN - 0029-4624
DOI - 10.1111/0029-4624.31.s11.17
Subject(s) - citation , computer science , library science
An innocent form of emergence—what I call "weak emergence"—is now a commonplace in a thriving interdisciplinary nexus of scientific activity—sometimes called the "sciences of complexity"—that include connectionist modelling, non-linear dynamics (popularly known as "chaos" theory), and artificial life.1 After defining it, illustrating it in two contexts, and reviewing the available evidence, I conclude that the scientific and philosophical prospects for weak emergence are bright. Emergence is a tantalizing topic because examples of apparent emergent phenomena abound. Some involve inanimate matter; e.g., a tornado is a self-organizing entity caught up in a global pattern of behavior