Varieties of emergence in artificial and natural systems

Abstract

In different disciplines such as philosophy of mind, dynamical systems theory, and connectionism the term 'emergence' has different jobs to perform. Therefore, various concepts of emergence are developed and examined. While weaker versions are compatible with property reductionism, stronger versions are not. Within philosophy of mind, particularly within the qualia debate there is a need for a strong notion of emergence, while in discussions of emergent properties of connectionist nets or of dynamical systems one can do with weaker notions of emergence.