Mechanisms and Emergence

A Reply to Denis C. Martin

Author

Carl F. Craver

ccraver @ artsci.wustl.edu

Washington University

St. Louis, MO, USA

Commentator

Denis C. Martin

denis.martin @ hu-berlin.de

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

Berlin, Germany

Editors

Thomas Metzinger

metzinger @ uni-mainz.de

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität

Mainz, Germany

Jennifer M. Windt

jennifer.windt @ monash.edu

Monash University

Melbourne, Australia

I respond to some of the major issues in Martin’s commentary, particularly (i) his insistence on a robust notion of being “at” a level, and (ii) his desire for mechanistic emergence to explain the genuine ontological novelty of higher level phenomena.

Keywords

Emergence | Levels | Mechanisms