The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion PDF
Preview The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion
THE RE-EMERGENCE OF EMERGENCE This page intentionally left blank The Re-Emergence of Emergence The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion Edited by PHILIP CLAYTON AND PAUL DAVIES 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork (cid:1)OxfordUniversityPress2006 Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2006 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Thereemergenceofemergence:theemergentisthypothesisfrom sciencetoreligion/editedbyPhilipClaytonandPaulDavies. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978-0-19-928714-7(alk.paper) ISBN-10:0-19-928714-7(alk.paper) 1. Emergence(Philosophy)2. Science–Philosophy.3. Consciousness.4. Religionandscience.I.Clayton,Philip,1956- II.Davies,Paul,1962- Q175.32.E44R442006 501–dc22 2006009453 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN0–19–928714–7 978–0–19–928714–7 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents Acknowledgements vii Preface ix PaulC.W.Davies 1. ConceptualFoundationsofEmergenceTheory 1 PhilipClayton I. THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES 2. ThePhysicsofDownwardCausation 35 PaulC.W.Davies 3. TheEmergenceofClassicality fromQuantumTheory 53 ErichJoos 4. OntheNatureofEmergentReality 79 GeorgeF.R.Ellis II. THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 5. Emergence:TheHoleattheWheel’sHub 111 TerrenceW.Deacon 6. TheRoleofEmergenceinBiology 151 LynnJ.Rothschild 7. EmergenceinSocialEvolution:AGreatApeExample 166 BarbaraSmuts III. CONSCIOUSNESS AND EMERGENCE 8. BeingRealisticaboutEmergence 189 JaegwonKim 9. InDefenceofOntologicalEmergenceandMentalCausation 203 MichaelSilberstein 10. EmergenceandMentalCausation 227 NanceyMurphy 11. StrongandWeakEmergence 244 DavidJ.Chalmers vi Contents IV. RELIGIONAND EMERGENCE 12. Emergence,Mind,andDivineAction:TheHierarchy oftheSciencesinRelationtotheHumanMind–Brain–Body 257 ArthurPeacocke 13. Emergence:WhatisatStakeforReligiousReXection? 279 NielsHenrikGregersen 14. EmergencefromQuantumPhysicstoReligion: ACriticalAppraisal 303 PhilipClayton NotesonContributors 323 Index 327 Acknowledgments The present volume was conceived in August, 2002, during a three-day consultation on emergence in Granada, Spain, at which most of the authors were present. The consultation was generously sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge this Wnancial support, without which this volume would not have come to press. Thanks are due in particular to Dr. Mary Ann Meyers, Director of the ‘Humble Approach Initiative’ programme at the Foundation, for her unfailingly professional work in organizing the conference, and her ongoing support of the eVorts thatresultedinthepresentbook. Although not explicitly represented in these pages, several other scholars werepresentattheoriginalconsultationandmadesubstantivecontributions tothe background researchthat eventually ledto thesechapters.Wewish to name in particular Dr. Rodney Brooks (Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science and Director of the ArtiWcial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Dr. Peter Fromherz (Director of the DepartmentofMembraneandNeurophysicsattheMax-PlanckInstitutefor BiochemistryinMartinsried/Munichandanhonoraryprofessorofphysicsat theTechnicalUniversityofMunich);Dr.CharlesHarper(ExecutiveDirector and Senior Vice President at The John Templeton Foundation); Dr. Harold Morowitz(theClarenceRobinsonProfessorofBiologyandNaturalPhiloso- phy at George Mason University and a member of its Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study); and Dr. Wojciech Zurek (a laboratory fellow at the Los AlamosNationalLaboratory). In Oxford, Ms. Lucy Qureshi had the vision for a volume that would be bothrigorousinitspresentationoftherelevantscientiWcresultsandboldto engageinphilosophicalandtheologicalreXectiononthebasisoftheseresults. To her, and to the superbly professional staV at Oxford University Press, we expressour thanks. Finally, we acknowledge thehard workand high standardsof Zach Simp- son,abiologistandgraduatestudentinphilosophyandreligionatClaremont Graduate University, who invested countless hours as the Editorial Assistant for thevolume. This page intentionally left blank Preface MuchofscientiWchistoryinvolvesasuccessionofsubjectsthathavemadethe transition from philosophy to science. Well-known examples are space and time,thenatureofmatterandlife,varietiesofcausation,andcosmology,all ofwhichwerealreadythesubjectsofrichphilosophicaldiscourseatthetime of ancient Greece. Of all the topics deliberated upon by the ancient Greek philosophers,theonewhichhashadthegreatestimpactonthescientiWcview oftheworldistheatomichypothesis.RichardFeynmanonceremarkedthatif allscientiWcknowledgeweretobelostsaveforonekeyidea,thentheatomic theoryofmatter wouldbethemostvaluable. Todaywemay regardtheearlyspeculationsofLeucippusandDemocritus asthebeginningofatwo-and-a-halfmilleniumquesttoidentifytheultimate buildingblocksoftheuniverse.Thesephilosophersproposedthatallmatteris composed of a handful of diVerent sorts of particles—atoms—so that the universeconsistsmerelyofatomsmovinginthevoid.Accordingtothisidea, physical objects may be distinguished by the diVerent arrangements of their atoms,andallchangeisnothingbuttherearrangementofatoms.Essentialto theatomictheorywasthatthe‘atoms’hadtobenon-decomposableparticles, withnoconstituentparts,makingthemtrulyelementaryandindestructible, otherwisetherewouldbeadeeperlevelofstructuretoexplain.Whatwetoday callatomsareclearlynottheatomsofancientGreece,fortheyarecomposite bodiesthatmaybebrokenapart.Butmostphysicistsbelievethatonamuch smallerscaleofsizetheredoesexistasetofentitieswhichplaythesamerole conceptuallyastheatomsofancientGreece, thatis,theyconstitute acollec- tion of fundamental, primitive objects from which all else is put together. Today it is fashionable to suppose that this base level of physical reality is inhabited by strings rather than particles, and string theory, or its further elaboration as the so-called M theory, is held by some to promise a complete and consistent description of the world—all forces, all particles, spaceandtime. Inspiteofthepersistenthypethatphysicistsarepoisedtoproducesucha ‘theory of everything’, thereby allegedly relegating philosophy to a scientiWc appendage, there remain at least two areas of philosophy that still seem far from being incorporated into mainstream science. The Wrst is the nature of consciousness and the second is emergence. Most philosophers regard the formerasinextricablyboundupwiththelatter.
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