1. Reimagining emergence, part 3: uncomputability, transformation, and self-transcending constructions
- Author
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Goldstein, Jeffrey A.
- Subjects
Emergence (Systems theory) -- Evaluation ,Business, general ,Economics - Abstract
This paper concludes a three part series by reimagining processes of emergence along the lines of a formal 'blueprint' for the 'logic' of these processes, a topic surprisingly neglected even within the camp of those advocating some form of emergence. This formalism is presented according to the following conceptual strategy. First, the explanatory gap of emergence, the presence of which is one of the main defining characteristics of emergent phenomena, is interpreted in terms of uncomputability, an idea introduced in complexity science in order to supplement the more traditional features of unpredictability, nondeducibility, and irreducibility. Uncomputability is traced back to a method devised by Georg Cantor in a very different context. I label Cantor's formalism a type of 'self-transcending construction' (STC), a phrase coined by an early commentator on Cantor's work. Next, I examine how Cantor's STC was appropriated, respectively, in the work of Gbdel and Turing on undecidability and uncomputability. Next, I comment on how self-transcending constructions derive a large measure of their potency via a kind of 'flirtation' with paradox in a manner similar to what Gbdel and Turing had done. Finally, I offer some suggestions on how the formalism of an STC can shed light on the nature of macro-level emergent wholes or integrations. This formalism is termed a 'self-transcending construction' a term derived from the anti-diagonalization method devised by George Cantor in 1891 and then utilized in the limitative theorems of Godel and Turing., Hollow rhetoric or substantive concept? ...but we have that in physics as well--physics is all emergent! Niels Bohr (Pavarini, Koch, & Schollwolk, 2013; footnote, p.1) While talking with a prominent [...]
- Published
- 2014