Rethinking Emergence

There has been a surge of recent interest in a family of phenomena that may broadly be described as emergent. This includes much lively and ongoing debate concerning whether any kind of emergence can be accommodated within a functionalist framework, whether emergence occurs at a time or over time, the role of context and constraint in emergence, and apparent downward causation in scientific case studies, as well as how ancient concepts of fusion, form, and transformation connect with contemporary accounts of emergence.

Rethinking Emergence brings together historians of philosophy, philosophers of science, and metaphysicians in conversation to address these central questions and to delve into as-yet unexplored points of contact among their varied perspectives.

David Yates, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon,Amanda Bryant, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Calgary

David Yates received his PhD from King's College London in 2006. He was a lecturer at KCL and Sheffield, and a postdoc at the Institute of Philosophy, KCL, and at Oxford University, before arriving in Lisbon as an FCT Researcher funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. He specializes in metaphysics of science and publishes on powers, causation, emergence, realization and related topics at the intersection of metaphysics and the philosophies of science and mind. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Lisbon and a member of the LanCog research group.

Amanda Bryant is an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the Department of Philosophy at the University of Calgary. Her philosophical work focuses on methodological naturalism and related views such as scientism and empiricism, especially as they relate to metaphysics. She received her PhD in Philosophy from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center in 2017.