The Origin of Emergence: A Guide to Samuel Alexander's 'Space, Time, and Deity' (Philosophy) - Hardcover

Paksi, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 13: 9798261600787

Publisher: Vernon Press, 2026

Synopsis

The universe evolves from a singularity of Space-Time. Life evolves from a singular replicative cell. Mind evolves in a singular living body in every individual case. We are living in an evolving universe. The concept of emergence tries to express the point of this process we can see everywhere. This is the reason that it has become so widespread both in philosophy and science. However, the use and meaning of the concept are quite different in the various fields; we have no real understanding of what the emergence of the universe or life means.

The concept of emergence stems from Samuel Alexander's 'Space, Time, and Deity' (1920). However, no one reads Alexander anymore and thus no one is familiar with the original concept. On the contrary, we often use it in an exactly opposite sense. For example, Lee Smolin, a physicist, to propose a solution for the problems of contemporary physics, writes in his book 'Time Reborn' that the only thing in the universe which is not emergent is Time. However, according to Alexander, we are living in an evolving universe because Time is emergent and the fundament of existence is Space-Time. Time is the ordering principle of change and emergence; there is nothing more.

The universe starts with the first manifestation of Time in Space, that is, by a singularity of Space-Time. Matter, life, and mind are all unfolding developments of this process. Every thing or being in the universe is but an emergent spatiotemporal complex. We die because our (biological) time is, in the literal sense, gone.

The goal of this book is to present the original concept of emergence in the twenty-first-century modern context, which no one has ever done before, and show that it is perfectly coherent with the scientific discoveries of the last century.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Paksi has an MA in History and an MA in Philosophy (both at Eötvös Loránd University Budapest), a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), and Habilitation at Eötvös Loránd University. He has been a Lecturer of Philosophy and History of Science from 2006 at BUTE and between 2006 and 2018 at ELU. His main fields of expertise are theories of emergence and evolution, philosophy of science, and Michael Polanyi's philosophy. Paksi is the author of 'Personal Reality: The Emergentist Concept of Science, Evolution, and Culture' (Two Volumes, Pickwick Publications, 2019) and the co-author of 'Guide to Personal Knowledge: The Philosophy of Michael Polanyi, Tacit Knowledge, Emergence and the Fiduciary Program' (Vernon Press, 2022). After this book, 'The Origin of Emergence, ' his next English work will be titled 'The Concept of Emergence: Space, Time, and Evolution' (under work), which will be based on this 'Guide to Space, Time, and Deity' and will extend the original Alexandrian concept based on twentieth-first century scientific knowledge and analyze its application in the main scientific and philosophical fields in detail.

Edition details

• Publisher: Vernon Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798261600787
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 342