The reemergence of 'emergence'

A variety of recent philosophical discussions, particularly on topics relat ing to complexity, have begun to reemploy the concept of 'emergence'. Altho ugh multiple concepts of 'emergence' are available, little effort has been made to systematically distinguish them. In this paper, I provide a taxonom y of higher-order properties that (inter alia) distinguishes three classes of emergent properties: (1) ontologically basic properties of complex entit ies, such as the mythical vital properties, (2) fully configurational prope rties, such as mental properties as they are conceived of by functionalists and computationalists, and (3) highly configurational/holistic properties, such as the higher-level patterns characteristic of complex dynamical syst ems. Or more simply: emergence as ontological liberality, emergence as mult iple realizability, and emergence as interactive complexity.