NowAphilosophicalnotere:emergentism.

Whenreadingawikiarticleorothertreatments,onewillencounterwhatareexplicitly
metaphysical
andontologicaltreatments.Thiscontrastswithmyowntakewhichismostly
epistemological.

Plainvanillaemergentismbeginswithan
epistemologicalir/reducibility.
Itsimplytakesaccount
ofemergentpropertiesinreality.Inthatsense,itprovidesonlya
phenomenological
taxonomy
,whichprovidesconceptualplaceholdersfordistincttypesof
ABOUTNESS
,taking
noteTHATtheypresent,epistemically,withoutaspiringtoexplanatoryadequacy,ontologically.
Thistaxonomy,then,doesnotemploy
rootmetaphors
(metaphysics)tosuccessfullydescribe
HOWthesepropertiesorthisaboutnesscomestobe(e.g.fromfundamentalprimitivesvsnovel
entities).Instead,itfostersvaluerealizationsfromthesimpleattentivenesstothefactTHAT
theyoccur,makingsuccessful,butvague,referencestosame.

Inotherwords,plainvanillaemergentismcritiquesmetaphysics,precisely,fortoooftenproving
toomuch,forsayingmorethancanpossiblybeknown,fortellinguntellablestories.

Thosewhoapproachemergentismontologically,smugglingincharacterizationslike
supervenience,alongwithweakandstrongemergence,shouldtakeheedofthiscritique.Asit
is,asfarasontologicaldistinctionsgo,tomaintainthatapropertyoraboutnesshasweakly
emergedremainsquestionbegging,hasstronglyemergedremainstrivial.Thisisnottosuggest
thatemergentpropertiescannotbeontologicallysuggestive,onlytoinsistthattheyarenot
metaphysicallydecisive.Andtorecognizethatmosthumanvaluerealizationscanbeenjoyed
withinavaguephenomenologicalframework,whichisrobustlyprobabilistic,withoutrecourseto
rationalist,abductivedeductivemetaphysics,whichisweaklyplausibilistic.

Concretely,then,emergenceprovidesconceptualplaceholdersthatbookmarkbothwhatwe
knowanddon'tknow.Basedonourobservationsregarding
emergentproperties
or
patterns
ofaboutness
inreality,weconfidentlyrecognizethePERFORMATIVEsignificanceofthefact
THATagreatdealofinterconnectednesspresentsinreality,evenasweproperlyresistany
rushtoclosureregardingHOWintermsofontologicalprimitivesormetaphysicalfoundationsor
INFORMATIVEsignificance.

Evenmoreconcretely,theoriginsofquantumfields,thecosmos,life,sentientlifeandsapient
lifeareepistemicallyirreducible.Tobeclear,thisdoesnotquestionthe
EpicofEvolution
it
recognizes,instead,explanatorygapswithinit.Forexample,quantummechanicsare
scientificallyestablishedbut,philosophicaly,
quantuminterpretations
stillbegquestions
theoreticalcosmologyrevealsacosmicevolution,but,philosophically,
cosmogonies
compete
thatlifeismadeofstardustisconclusive,butprecisebiopoieticinterpretationsdescribing
a/biogenesis
stillcompetethe
hardproblemofconsciousness
andemergenceofsentiencestill
begquestionsleadingtocompeting
philosophiesofmind
and,finally,theappearanceof
sapientlife,whichintroducesnovelsemioticpropertieslikesymboliclanguage,remainsan

intractableproblem.EmergencetakesaccountoftheTHATNESSofeachsuchABOUTNESS
andcommendsittoalltocelebrateandenjoy,butdoesnotaspiretoexplainHOWtheycame
about,optingforasuitableepistemichumility,stayinghorizonsituatedandtaking
PREGNANT
PAUSES
,opentonovelty,willingtobesurprised!

emergentism,emergentchurch,contemplativestance,epistemichumility,emergentproperties,
ontologicalaboutness,strongemergence,weakemergence,supervenience,rootmetaphors,
explanatoryadequacy,phenomenologicaltaxonomy,epistemologicalirreducibility,ontological
irreducibility,originoflife,cosmicorigins,philosophyofmind,hardproblemofconsciousness