Paul W. Humphreys

This project provides a comprehensive framework within which contemporary philosophical and scientific theories of emergence can be accommodated. It does so by building on ontological accounts of emergence and epistemological analysis of computer simulation methods. An important part of the project is to examine the consequences that emergent phenomena have for the dominant philosophical approach of generative atomism. Other aspects of the project deal with emergence in complexity theory, reduction, and self-organization in the social sciences. It is an essential feature of the project to go well beyond issues in the philosophy of mind.