2 The bottom-up approach

This way of using the term emergence is directly related to the bottom-up approach applied here. This approach is inspired by Feynman, who stated that we understand a system only when we are able to construct it (in Hawking 2001) and may be even dated back to Giambattista Vico (1710). The bottom-up approach allows us to study the extent to which linguistic concepts proposed in the literature may correspond to properties realized by our artificial system. If one was not prepared to accept that a specific concept would correspond to selected properties of the artificial system, either the linguistic concepts might be adapted accordingly, or the artificial system might be judged as to show deficits. The latter case could then give rise to adapt the current simulation model to better match the verbal proposal given. This capability of the bottom-up approach led Manuela Lenzen (2014) to characterize reaCog as a “concept clarifying machine” (“Begriffspräzisierungsmaschine”).