The Question of Emergence

This book takes the relationship between physics and sociology as its subject, focussing on the philosophical dispute between emergentism and reductionism. It argues that the mystery behind emergence disappears when we abandon the lawful understanding of causality, in favour of a powers view.

Douglas V. Porpora is Emeritus Professor of Sociology in the Department of Communication at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. He has written widely on politics and social theory, most recently Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach.

1. Introduction 2. Laws and Physicalist Reductionism 3. From Laws to Powers 4. Ontological Emergence Without Mystery 5. One-Off vs. Level Emergence 6. Social Powers, Social Wholes, and Downward Causation 7. Conclusion Index