We considered how the process of emergence could occur. A full understanding of a stratified world requires us not only to establish the physical nature of each added level of organisation but also to show how each level influences the others. A system consisting of several levels exhibits a hierarchical organisation, with the higher levels having variable degrees of dependence on the lower levels.
Within each level of organisation, order is generated from disorder according to non-linear dynamic rules. However, the nature of the interactions between levels may require novel conceptual thinking. These interactions involve reciprocal forms of influence but are non-symmetrical.1
Establishing the necessary conditions for a particular level of organisation to exist, usually consists in finding which factors lead to the collapse of that level of organisation to a lower level. This is achieved by experiments in which certain factors are removed and the consequences observed. If the system collapses to a lower level of organisation, then that factor under investigation can be regarded as ‘necessary’. It is a form of dependence of one level on the one further down.
Such analytical studies have been the most common initial steps in experimental science to identify the underlying the conditions necessary for a particular structure to exist. However, they are usually insufficient to understand how the underlying elements generate a new level. In other words, establishing which conditions are ‘sufficient‘ for a new level of organisation to emerge is a much harder experimental and conceptual task.
The concept of causation when applied to interactions of levels of organisation needs to be refined. The processes occurring at a particular level affect the levels above by very different processes compared with those that affect the levels below. This situation can be summarised by distinguishing local-to-global causation (bottom-up) and global-to-local causation (top-down)2.
This concept has been developed further by an assembly theory proposed to link the laws of physics to biology via a ‘causal closure‘ – the ability to explain why things happen as they do – which takes place only when all levels linked in an assembly are considered. The downward processes do not alter the physical laws of the levels below, but they do shape specific outcomes3.
A general conceptual frame to deal with the emergence of complexity was proposed by Chvykov et al4 who concluded that the complex dynamics of a driven collective of non-linearly interacting particles may give rise to a situation in which a new kind of simplicity emerges.
I would like to bring to the attention of the reader a remarkable insight of Arthur Schopenhauer in his small book On the Freedom of the Will which was a submission for a prize of the Norwegian Royal Society on the issue of free will. His views are consistent with the issues discussed in this essay. He distinguished 3 kind of causes that operate in nature:
[1] A cause in the strictest sense, whereby all changes of mechanics physical or chemical occur. This includes all classic physics.
[2] The second kind of cause is an event which is followed by another event of very different intensity. The causal event can be considered as a kind of trigger or stimulus. The size of the response depends on an underlying intrinsic process predisposing the response as well as the intensity of the stimulus. He considers living organisms, animals or plants, to be subject to such kinds of causes. This type of casual event corresponds to a system based on excitable media.
[3] The third kind comprises 'motor causes' or 'motivation', ie, drives that come from within an organism, with no apparent external stimulus.
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer
- Hermann Haken (1984) The Science of Structure – Synergetics. Van Nostrand Reinhold;
Hermann Haken (2013) Synergetics, An Introduction – Nonequilibrium phase transitions and self-organization in physics, chemistry and biology, 3rd ed. Springer-Verlag. ↩︎ - See George FR Ellis, Denis Noble & Timothy O’Connor (2011): Top-down causation: an integrating theme within and across the sciences? Interface Focus. 2, 1–3. ↩︎
- George FR Ellis (2023): How purposeless physics underlies purposeful life. Nature 622, 247-249. ↩︎
- Chvykov P et al (2021): Low rattling: a predictive principle for self-organization in active collectives Science 371 (6534) 90-95.
See also: Alain Berthoz (2012): Simplexity: Simplifying Principles for a Complex World. Yale University Press. ↩︎