Distinguishing between inter-domain and intra-domain emergence

OLIMPIA LOMBARDI; MARÍA JOSÉ FERREIRA RUIZ

FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2019 vol. 24 p. 133 - 151

1233-1821

Currently, there arealmost as many conceptions of emergence as authors who address the issue. Mostliterature on the matter focuses either on discussing, evaluating and comparingparticular contributions or accounts of emergence, or on assessing a particularcase study. Our aim in this paper is rather different. We here set out to introducea distinction that has not been sufficiently taken into account in previousdiscussions on this topic: the distinction between inter-domain emergence -arelation between items belonging to different ontic domains- and intra-domainemergence -a relation between items belonging to asame ontic domain. Our final purpose is not to assume and defend a definitestance on emergence, but to stress the relevance of such distinction whenattempting to argue for or against emergence, in the first place. We willsuggest where pluralists and reductionist would stand regarding emergence sodistinguished (intra- and inter-domain) from different philosophical generalperspectives such as reductionism and pluralism.