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Emerging into the Rainforest: Emergence and Special Science Ontology

Franklin, Alexander and Robertson, Katie (2024) Emerging into the Rainforest: Emergence and Special Science Ontology. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Scientific realists don't standardly discriminate between, say, biology and fundamental physics when deciding whether the evidence and explanatory power warrant the inclusion of new entities in our ontology. As such, scientific realists are committed to a lush rainforest of special science kinds (Ross (2000)).

Viruses certainly inhabit this rainforest -- their explanatory power is overwhelming -- but viruses' properties can be explained from the bottom up: reductive explanations involving amino acids are generally available. However, reduction has often been taken to lead to a metaphysical downgrading, so how can viruses keep their place in the rainforest?

In this paper, we show how the inhabitants of the rainforest can be inoculated against the eliminative threat of reduction: by demonstrating that they are emergent. According to our account, emergence involves a screening off condition as well as novelty. We go on to demonstrate that this account of emergence, which is compatible with theoretical reducibility, satisfies common intuitions concerning what should and shouldn't count as real: viruses are emergent, as are trout and turkeys, but philosophically gerrymandered objects like trout-turkeys do not qualify.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Franklin, Alexanderalexander.r.franklin@kcl.ac.uk0000-0001-6034-4575
Robertson, Katiekatie.robertson@stir.ac.uk0000-0002-0645-0761
Additional Information: Forthcoming in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science
Keywords: Emergence Reduction Ontology Rainforest Screening Off Autonomy Novelty
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > Natural Kinds
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Depositing User: Dr Alexander Franklin
Date Deposited: 31 Oct 2024 17:13
Last Modified: 31 Oct 2024 17:13
Item ID: 24132
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > Natural Kinds
Specific Sciences > Physics
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Date: October 2024
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24132

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