what is emergence? and why should you care? philip gorski yale university critical realism network

What is Emergence? And Why Should You Care?

Philip GorskiYale University

Critical Realism Network

www.criticalrealismnetwork.org

www.facebook.com/groups/criticalrealismnetwork/

@EngageCR

Key Questions

• What is emergence?

• What are the different types of emergence?

• How does social emergence differ from physical and biological emergence?

• What are the main arguments for and against emergence?

• What does social emergence mean for social theory and social research?

Types of Emergence

• Epistemological emergence: qualitative patterns.

• Chaotic emergence: new structures.

• Ontological emergence: new powers.

Domains of Emergence

• Physical emergence: spatial relations between

physical parts.

• Biological emergence: spatial and temporal

relations between physical and functional parts.

• Social emergence: spatial, temporal and intentional

relations between physical, functional and symbolic

parts.

Social Structure: A Generic Definition

• Human Persons

• Human Symbols

• Human Artifacts

Three (BAD) Arguments against Emergence

• Skeptical: “Seeing is believing.”

• Reductionist: Methodological Individualism

• Epistemological: “Just you wait!”

A (Better) Hermeneutic Argument against Emergence

• Ontological: Nature vs. Culture.

• Methodological: Observation vs. Interpretation

• Epistemological: Objective vs. Subjective.

• Constructivist: Mind-Independence vs. Mind-

Dependence.

Some Realist Counter-Arguments for Emergence

• The hermeneutic description of science is a

misleading caricature.

• The hermeneutic account of agency is overly

romantic.

• The hermeneutic vision of social science is

insufficiently pluralistic.

• The hermeneutic emphasis on perspectivalism is

too subjectivistic.

Social Emergence: Practical Implications

• Methodological Pluralism: No “gold standards.”

• Social Theory as Social Ontology.

• Formal Causation: “Constraining and Enabling.”

• Social Structure: Recovering the Material

Dimension.

Summing Up

• Emergence: “whole is greater than the parts.”

• A Spectrum: pure aggregativity, qualitative patterns,

new structures, new powers.

• Social Emergence: spatial, temporal and intentional

relations between physical, functional and symbolic

parts.