strong or radical emergence

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Strong or radical emergence is the position that complete lower-level facts cannot, even in principle, fully entail a novel higher-level outcome, sometimes associated with new causal powers or laws. RB1 attributes this stronger position to particular emergence discussions before narrowing its own requirement. The author retains prior non-fixation and new organization while conceding the constituted regime’s physical realization rather than adopting every claim of synchronic underivability.

Explanation

RB1 introduces the strong-emergence position after weak emergence’s in-principle derivability. The native notes preserve the British emergentists and the Bedau, Chalmers, Humphreys and Wilson distinctions rather than treating every account of novelty as one doctrine. This entry records the stronger alternative as an attributed position, not a default description of all emergent phenomena.

The author then states that the argument needs a more exact diachronic claim: the prior state did not fix which organizational regime emerged from its weighted possibilities. Once constituted, the regime is physically instantiated throughout. Its new capacities are those of organization and existing interactions, not an independent substance or fundamental force.

AB likewise contrasts weak novelty with stabilized new constraints without adding new physics. PB’s threshold propositions say new capacities are realized through existing physical interactions. These parallels preserve the author’s selective adoption and prevent the heading from incorrectly assigning every historical strong-emergence thesis to the work itself.

Scope and attribution

Separate the stronger comparative doctrine from the precise diachronic commitment the author retains.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

The stronger attributed position is followed by a narrower authorial requirement and physical concession.

Occurrence locators: 161, 162; Notes: 161, 162.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.