Emergence Blog

McDonough, Richard. “Hegel’s Organic Account of Mind and Critique of Cognitive Science,” Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, vol. 19., no. 1, 1996, pp. 67-97.

Emergence or Reduction?: Essays on the Prospects of Nonreductive Physicalism, edited by Ansgar Beckermann, Hans Flohr, Jaegwon Kim. Berlin; New York: W. de Gruyter, 1992.

I’ve had this undeveloped post sitting in limbo for a couple years. I’ll publish it now just to get the reference out there.

Sayers, Sean. “Engels and Materialism,” in Engels Today: A Centenary Appreciation, edited by Christopher J. Arthur (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), pp. 153-172.

A criticism of physicalism and dualism and a comparison of the non-reductive materialism of Friedrich Engels and Donald Davidson’s anomalous monism, which Sayers deems unable to adequately account for the relaiton of matter and mind and the latter’s historical social development.

The enemy is organizing. I received this communication this morning:

AntiMatters (http://anti-matters.org) is a newly launched online journal addressing issues in science and the humanities from non-materialistic perspectives. Submissions are welcome.
________________________

Focus and Scope of the Journal:

Materialism, in one form or another, is still widely accepted as the overarching framework for discussing issues not only in science but also in the humanities. AntiMatters is dedicated to illuminating these issues from non-materialistic perspectives.

Materialism is by nature pluralistic. It assigns ultimate reality to a multitude (particles, spacetime points, monads, actual occasions, etc.). It models reality “from the bottom up.” Its principal explanatory concepts are composition and interaction, to which modern field theories have added the concept of instantiation (usually of physical properties by spacetime points).

AntiMatters encourages the exploration of ontologies that are essentially monistic, not because they aim to reduce reality to a single category such as matter or mind, but because they assign ultimate reality to an entity or principle that is intrinsically one. Such ontologies model reality “from the top down,” using novel explanatory concepts such as differentiation, manifestation, emanation, or emergence (and probably others that no one has though of yet).

AntiMatters is for those who are uncomfortable with (or unconvinced of) materialism, or who favor a non-materialistic world view. Such persons are oftentimes unaware of how much of what is claimed to have been scientifically established is actually spurious. For their benefit, the Journal aims to critically examine the alleged scientific evidence for materialism. While authors are expected to respect and take account of all relevant empirical data, they should bear in mind that empirical data are inevitably theory-laden and paradigm-dependent, and that theories and paradigms, being to a considerable extent social constructions, are relative.

Science operates within an interpretative framework that formulates questions and interprets answers. This framework is itself not testable.

AntiMatters wants to serve as a platform for the comparative study of alternative interpretative frameworks. The Journal emphasizes the
following criteria for the evaluation of such frameworks:

(i) Consistency with all empirical data, not only the quantifiable ones but also those obtained through phenomenological methods, altered states of consciousness, and mystical or spiritual experience.

(ii) An appropriate ontological status for what we value most, such as
happiness, self-fulfillment, excellence — the Platonic trinity of beauty, good, and truth.

The Journal wants to set high intellectual standards, without sacrificing substance. Style is important, but more so is content. Positive thinking is as essential as clarity of exposition. Deconstruction for its own sake qualifies as little as religious dogma.

It is not the (primary) aim of AntiMatters to “convert” die-hard materialists. Instead, the Journal offers non-materialists the opportunity of a stimulating exchange of views. It will invite comments on articles that are accepted for publication and encourage comments on published articles. Authors will of course be allowed to respond to comments.

Discussions of “anomalies,” which are neglected or ignored by mainstream science, also fall within the scope of the Journal.

Founding Editors:

Mae-Wan Ho, Director, Institute of Science in Society, United Kingdom
Robert Maurice Kleinman, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, United States
Peter B Lloyd, Writer, United Kingdom
Ulrich J Mohrhoff, Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, India
Roger D Nelson, Director, Global Consciousness Project, United States
Eric Weiss, California Institute of Integral Studies

Regards,
Ulrich Mohrhoff
Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education
Pondicherry 605002 India

Note that this New Age assault on science exploits positivism and the concept of “emergence” in order to justify a supersensible basis for reality. Indeed, it is top-down rather than bottom-up, in every sense of the term.