Emergentism and the Process Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead

Whitehead never described himself as an emergentist. However, it is not possible to dissociate him completely from the idea of emergentism - their interpenetrations and interactions are too strong. lf one then looks for emergentism in Whitehead's philosophy, it is a very specific emergentism. His emergentism seems more real than the concepts proposed by his contemporaries. lt is no longer merely a creative principle. Whitehead's emergentism is not just an  epistemological aspect of the world but has become a strong ontological structure. lt reflects the dynamics of creative structures not only at the level of the creation of new objects, but it creates the dynamics of the universe. lt becomes the basis for understanding the world.

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Emergentism arose as a via media between reductionism (mechanism) and vitalism. From the first use of the term "emergence" by George Henry Lewes, through Mill, to British emergentists such as: Samuel Alexander, Lloyd Morgan, Charlie Dunbar Broad. British emergentism failed not so much because of philosophical  criticism, but rather because of a neo-positivist interpretation of scientific achievements. ( ...) The collapse of logical positivism, along with reductionist tendencies, created an atmosphere for nonreductive physicalism, which in turn contributed to the revival of emergentism. The specific openness of Whitehead's system  creates an opportunity to enrich his thought with elements from contemporary emergentism on the one hand, and, on the other, to use Whitehead's philosophy in  contemporary research related to emergentism.

prof. Michał Heller