Emergence - by Mariusz Tabaczek (Hardcover)

About the Book

Mariusz Tabaczek provides thorough analysis of the conceptual theories of emergence and downward causation, revealing various philosophical problems facing emergentism.

Book Synopsis

Over the last several decades, the theories of emergence and downward causation have become arguably the most popular conceptual tools in scientific and philosophical attempts to explain the nature and character of global organization observed in various biological phenomena, from individual cell organization to ecological systems. The theory of emergence acknowledges the reality of layered strata or levels of systems, which are consequences of the appearance of an interacting range of novel qualities.

A closer analysis of emergentism, however, reveals a number of philosophical problems facing this theory. In Emergence, Mariusz Tabaczek offers a thorough analysis of these problems and a constructive proposal of a new metaphysical foundation for both the classic downward causation-based and the new dynamical depth accounts of emergence theory, developed by Terrence Deacon. Tabaczek suggests ways in which both theoretical models of emergentism can be grounded in the classical and the new (dispositionalist) versions of Aristotelianism. This book will have an eager audience in metaphysicians working both in the analytic and the Thomistic traditions, as well as philosophers of science and biology interested in emergence theory and causation.

Review Quotes

"Tabaczek has managed to digest an impressively encyclopaedic quantity of scholarship on metaphysics and science within a single volume which will be useful for both students and researchers, and his challenge to reclaim a more classical conception of hylomorphism is timely and apt to invigorate lively discussion." --The Thomist

"Emergence teaches that chemical, biological, psychological, and social entities have effects on the world, a view that rejects the reductionist physicalist claim that, in principle at least, one can completely explain events in the world using the entities recognized by physics alone.'' --Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

"Mariusz Tabaczek's Emergence provides us with Aristotle's metaphysics masterfully updated to address some of the most vexing dilemmas of twenty-first-century philosophy of science. Whether or not it resolves current debates about the nature of causality and the concept of emergence, it nevertheless reframes them with a clarity and precision that only the father of metaphysics could provide." --Terrence W. Deacon, University of California, Berkeley

"The time is exactly right for Mariusz Tabaczek's new book on emergence. In relating historical debates to contemporary metaphysics, Tabaczek produces a philosophical tour de force encompassing all the relevant contributions to the debate and, just as importantly, establishing a plausible set of conclusions. This will surely be a major reference for future work on the topic." --Stephen Mumford, Durham University

"The book presents in a very detailed narrative the current status quaestionis of theories of powers metaphysics as well as emergence and downward causation, and is extremely valuable and informative, proposing a move forward in the contemporary metaphysical discussion. The scholarship is superb, and the arguments and ideas presented in it could lead to new developments in the future by many a scholar interested in an Aristotelian interpretation of powers ontology." --Ignacio Silva, Philosophy Institute, Austral University, Argentina

About the Author

Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P., is a friar preacher, professor of theology, and member of the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He is the author of Divine Action and Emergence: An Alternative to Panentheism (University of Notre Dame Press, 2021).