Argumenta – Journal of Analytic Philosophy

In this article, I shall examine Jessica Wilson’s schema for weak emergence in connection with two questions: why are only certain proper subsets of the powers borne by lower-level features associated with higher-level, weakly emergent features? Why is a certain proper subset of the powers borne by a given lower-level feature associated with a certain higher-level, weakly emergent feature, and vice versa? I shall consider and criticize four possible answers to these questions, including Wilson’s own view. Finally, I shall suggest my own solution, which is based on something akin to grounding categoricalism. I shall also explore some consequences of accepting my view.

I shall discuss in this contribution Jessica Wilson’s schema for weak emergence. I shall show that this schema comes together with two crucial questions. First question: why are only certain proper subsets of the powers borne by lower-level features associated with higher-level, weakly emergent features? Second question: why is a certain proper subset of the powers borne by a given lower-level feature associated with a certain higher-level, weakly emergent feature, and…

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