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Philosophy General

Emergence and Convergence

Qualitative Novelty and the Unity of Knowledge

by (author) Mario Bunge

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2014
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802088604
    Publish Date
    Dec 2003
    List Price
    $90.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442621961
    Publish Date
    Jan 2015
    List Price
    $43.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442628212
    Publish Date
    Jul 2014
    List Price
    $53.00

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Description

Two problems continually arise in the sciences and humanities, according to Mario Bunge: parts and wholes and the origin of novelty. In Emergence and Convergence, he works to address these problems, as well as that of systems and their emergent properties, as exemplified by the synthesis of molecules, the creation of ideas, and social inventions.

Along the way, Bunge examines further topical problems, such as the search for the mechanisms underlying observable facts, the limitations of both individualism and holism, the reach of reduction, the abuses of Darwinism, the rational choice-hermeneutics feud, the modularity of the brain vs. the unity of the mind, the cluster of concepts around 'maybe,' the uselessness of many-worlds metaphysics and semantics, the hazards posed by Bayesianism, the nature of partial truth, the obstacles to correct medical diagnosis, and the formal conditions for the emergence of a cross-discipline.

Bunge is not interested in idle fantasies, but about many of the problems that occur in any discipline that studies reality or ways to control it. His work is about the merger of initially independent lines of inquiry, such as developmental evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, and socio-economics. Bunge proposes a clear definition of the concept of emergence to replace that of supervenience and clarifies the notions of system, real possibility, inverse problem, interdiscipline, and partial truth that occur in all fields.

About the author

Mario Bunge is the Frothingham Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University.

Mario Bunge's profile page

Editorial Reviews

‘The sheer range of scientific/philosophical disciplines dealt with, competently and systematically, in Emergence and Convergence, cannot fail to impress. Quantum mechanics, economics, ethics, linguistics, truth, probability, are all brought into Bunge’s unified picture of the world.’

Philosophy in Review