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The Re-Emergence of Emergence
A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory

Peter A. Corning, Ph.D.
Institute for the Study of Complex Systems
119 Bryant Street, Suite 212
Palo Alto, CA 94301 USA

Phone: (650) 325-5717
Fax: (650) 325-3775
Email: pacorning@complexsystems.org

Prepared for a Special Symposium on
"The Role of Synergy in the Evolution of Complexity"
Annual Meeting, Human Behavior and Evolution Society,
London, England, June 14-17, 2001

Submitted: Complexity (2002)

Despite its current popularity, "emergence" is a word with a "shady past" and an elusive, ambiguous standing in contemporary evolutionary theory. In this paper, I will begin by briefly recounting the venerable history of the term and will detail some of its current usages. Not only are there radically varying interpretations about what emergence means but "reductionist" and "holistic" theorists have very different views about the issue of causation. However, I will argue that these two seemingly polar positions are not irreconcilable. Reductionism, or detailed analysis of the parts and their interactions, is essential for answering the "how" question - how does a complex living system work? But holism is equally necessary for answering the "why" question - why did a particular arrangement of parts evolve? In order to answer the "why" question, a broader, multi-leveled selection paradigm is required that can perhaps be characterized as "Holistic Darwinism." The reductionist approach to explaining emergent complexity has entailed a search for "laws of emergence." By contrast, the "Synergism Hypothesis" focuses on the "economics". In a nutshell, the synergistic (co-operative) effects produced by various combinations of parts have played a major causal role in the evolution of complexity. Indeed, synergy has played an especially important part in shaping human evolution. I will also argue that the phenomena often identified with emergence represent, in effect, a subset of a much larger universe of combined effects in the natural world; there are many different kinds of synergy, but not all synergies entail emergent phenomena.

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