Hierarchical Emergent Ontology and the Universal Principle of Emergence

This book offers a new look at emergence in terms of a hierarchical emergent ontology. Emergence is recognised as a universal principle, as universal as the principle of evolution. This is achieved by setting out the ontological criteria of emergence and such criteria’s various roles. The traditional dichotomies are overcome, e.g., the synchronic and diachronic perspectives are unified, allowing a single, universal principle of emergence to be applied across various fields of science. As exemplars of its practical utility in both explanation and prediction, this new approach is applied to three different scientific areas: cellular automata, quantum Hall effects, and the neural network of the mind. It proves that the resulting metaphysics of hierarchical emergent ontology plays a fundamental role in unifying science, an impossible task under classical reductionism.

1. Reductionism and holism.- 2. Towards a universal principle of emergence (UPE).- 3. Emergence in physical systems.- 4. Hierarchical emergent ontology (HEO).- Conclusion: Emergence and the open universe.

Vladimír Havlík is a member of the Department of Analytic Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, The Czech Academy of Sciences, and an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of West Bohemia. He focuses his research on the development and evaluation of cutting-edge themes in the philosophy of science, especially on evolution, emergence, and reductionism. The building blocks of this research involve theories pertaining to physics, biology, cosmology, complexity theory, and AI. Such work has previously culminated in the collective monograph, Z evolucního hlediska (From the Evolutionary Point of View). Recently published articles include Appearance and Persistence as the Unity of Diachronic and Synchronic Concepts of Emergence (JGPS), The Naturalness of Artificial Intelligence from the Evolutionary Perspective (AI & Society), and the monograph, Anomálie, ad hoc hypotézy a temné stránky kosmologie (Anomalies, ad hoc Hypotheses and the Dark Sides of Cosmology).