AGGREGATIVITY - REDUCTIVE HEURISTICS FOR FINDING EMERGENCE

Most philosophical accounts of emergence are incompatible with reducti on. Most scientists regard a system property as emergent relative to p roperties of the system's parts if it depends upon their mode of organ ization-a view consistent with reduction. Emergence can be analyzed as a failure of aggregativity-a state in which ''the whole is nothing: m ore than the sum of its parts.'' Aggregativity requires four condition s, giving tools for analyzing modes of organization. Differently met f or different decompositions of the system, and in different degrees, t hese conditions provide powerful evaluation criteria for choosing deco mpositions, and heuristics for detecting biases of vulgar reductionism s. This analysis of emergence is compatible with reduction.