Emergent Evolution

Emergent Evolution 

an idealist concept that views development as the intermittent emergence of new and higher qualities—a process conditioned by the intervention of ideal forces. The concept came to maturity in the works of S. Alexander and of the British biologist and philosopher C. Lloyd Morgan.

Emergent evolution distinguishes between (1) quantitative changes, or “resultants,” which are defined by the algebraic sum of original properties, and (2) qualitative changes, or “emergents,” which cannot be reduced to the original properties and are in no way conditioned by material changes. With its gradation of “emergents,” the doctrine of emergent evolution may be said to deal with “levels of existence.” The number of levels of emergent evolution varies from three (matter, life, and psyche) to a score or more. The lowest level is interpreted as one that merely creates the necessary conditions for the emergence of a higher one. The nature of emergent evolution is both teleological and theological, inasmuch as certain ideal forces are said to constitute its moving force. Alexander, for example, views the moving force of emergent evolution as nisus—a striving toward something higher—and equates it with divinity as the goal of development.

In the materialist interpretation of some American philosophers, such as R. W. Sellars, W. Montague, and A. Lovejoy, “emergence” expresses the “inner dynamism” of nature. However, the abstract recognition of nature’s self-motion does not lead them beyond the metaphysical concept of development.

REFERENCES

Bogomolov, A. S. Ideia razvitiia v burzhuaznoi filosofii XIX i XX vv. Moscow, 1962. Chapters 5, 8, and conclusion.
Morgan, T. G. Eksperimental’nye osnovy evoliutsii. Moscow-Leningrad, 1936.
Alexander, S. Space, Time and Deity, vols. 1–2, Leningrad, 1927.
Morgan, C. L. Emergent Evolution, 2nd ed. London, 1927.
Le Boutillier, C. Religious Values in the Philosophy of Emergent Evolution. New York, 1936.

A. S. BOGOMOLOV