Lohse, Simon (2025) Social Emergence and Unpredictability. [Preprint]

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Abstract

I analyse arguments for social emergentism based on the notion of unpredictability. After examining and ultimately rejecting weak emergentism as relevant theoretical counterpart to reductionism, I discuss three arguments asserting that social phenomena should be considered strongly emergent as they are in-principle unpredictable. The main results are a clearer understanding of the premises underlying an emergentist case for unpredictability and that none of the discussed arguments succeeds when confronted with the actual practice of contemporary social science. This conclusion contributes to a deeper understanding of the concept of unpredictability and the prospects of a theory of emergence in social science.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Lohse, Simon simon.lohse@ru.nl 0000-0002-4119-1929
Keywords:	Philosophy of social science; prediction; reductionism; emergentism.
Subjects:	General Issues > Reductionism/Holism Specific Sciences > Sociology
Depositing User:	Dr. S. Lohse
Date Deposited:	10 Oct 2025 11:33
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2025 11:33
Item ID:	26883
Subjects:	General Issues > Reductionism/Holism Specific Sciences > Sociology
Date:	October 2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/26883

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• Social Emergence and Unpredictability. (deposited 07 Mar 2024 03:13)
  • Social Emergence and Unpredictability. (deposited 10 Oct 2025 11:33) [Currently Displayed]

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