Hilbert, Maxime (2026) The Non-Eternalist Roots of Emergence. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Contemporary literature on emergence is currently divided between synchronic and diachronic accounts. While this disagreement hinges on whether time is a dispensable or indispensable feature for understanding emergence, neither side has thus far taken care to clarify in what sense the notion of “time” to which each side refers should be understood. The ontology of emergence and theories of time are thus typically treated as orthogonal topics generating independent debates.
This paper challenges this assumption through a historical analysis of early twentieth century emergentism (1910s–1930s). I argue that, for its original proponents, emergence
was inseparable from a substantive metaphysical commitment concerning time. Aiming to make sense of genuine evolutionary novelty—i.e., the coming into being of qualitatively new features of the world—the early emergentists’ project appeared, at the time, incompatible with a conception of time that famously neglects the very idea of “genuine” change: eternalism.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Hilbert, Maxime maxime.hilbert@unamur.be 0009-0006-6379-7004
Keywords:	Emergence – Emergent Evolution – Metaphysics of Time – Eternalism – Presentism – Growing Block Universe – Moving Spotlight
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Mr. Maxime Hilbert
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2026 12:38
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2026 12:38
Item ID:	30065
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	11 June 2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/30065

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