Emergence et réduction : analyse épistémologique de la dynamique des systèmes naturels
(2013)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- Feltz, Bernard
- Abstract
- (en) The main objective of this dissertation is to deal with two issues that every form of emergentism has to face. On the one hand, in view of the fact that the concept of emergence has dramatically spread and that this spreading has considerably obscured the contemporary debate about reductionism and antireductionism, I propose a conceptual clarification of emergence. It consists in an identification and a precise characterization of the diverse forms emergence can take in different contexts, forms that may be associated with the specific explanatory, causal and constitutive dynamics of natural systems. On the other hand, with regard to the potential instability of the various types of emergentism – instability that follows from their difficulty to satisfy the non-contradiction principle –, I explicate the ways in which the consistency of emergentism may be vindicated. In the end, this twofold analysis sheds some light on the topic – highly vivid in contemporary science – of emergence and reduction. This constitutes a useful basis to reappraise sensitive issues in philosophy of science like, for instance, those relative to the nature of the relationship between physical, vital and mental processes.
- Affiliations
Citations
Sartenaer, O. (2013). Emergence et réduction : analyse épistémologique de la dynamique des systèmes naturels. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/36420