Raju, Archishman (2025) The emergentist dimensions of organicism. [Preprint]

Text PhilSciArchiveSubmission.pdf Download (197kB)

Abstract

The study of organicism has been revived in the past few decades. Usually, organicism is seen as a "third way" between mechanism and vitalism. I argue that philosophical views of emergence are central to the understanding of organicism. While this is routinely acknowledged, the specific nature of the role of emergence in organicism has not been closely examined. Here, I do so by first tracing the historical roots of emergentist ideas in the works of C. H. Waddington and J. Needham. I make a comparison with ideas in condensed matter physics where new theoretical ideas were described in the language of emergence, just as molecular biology became ascendant. I then argue that Waddington's landscape should be seen as an example of an emergent description, and I describe some similarities and differences from emergence in physics.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Raju, Archishman archishman@ncbs.res.in
Keywords:	organicism, Waddington's landscape, emergence, dialectical materialism, universality
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Dr. Archishman Raju
Date Deposited:	10 Dec 2025 13:52
Last Modified:	10 Dec 2025 13:52
Item ID:	27420
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	10 December 2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27420

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item