Emergence and reduction: !is there nothing new !
under the sun?"Donato BERGANDI
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Réductionnisme et propriétés émergentes""
16-17 novembre 2012!!
Atelier sciences – histoire – cité, UPMC!
Worldviews!Reductionism Emergentism"
n Atomism!!!n Applicability of physics
and chemistry!!n Emergents do not exist!
n Holism!
n Applicability of physics and chemistry !
!!n Emergence!
Strategy of research!Reductionism Emergentism"
n Bottom-up!
!n Acceptance of
analytical approach!
!!n Relationships
among constitutive parts !
n Top-down!!!n Criticism of
analytical approach !!!n Relationships
among constitutive parts (BUT)!
Theoretical domain (inter-level reduction)!
Reductionism Emergentism"n Hierarchical
framework!
!n Ideal reduction of
the non-physical sciences!
! !
n Systemic framework!
!!n Autonomy of the
non-physical sciences!
!
!
Ontology!"
n Holism: Not all holistic positions are emergentist, but all emergentist views are holistic. "
n Levels of organisation: Reality is a hierarchical, multi-layered, multi-level process."
n Novelty: The emergent properties of every level of organisation express new qualities and a new order of phenomena compared with the level of organisation on which they depend and from which they emerge.!
!
Methodology!"
n Epistemological status of « wholes », « parts » and « relations ».!
n Hypothetical attribution of emergent properties.!
!!n Multi-level, triadic
approach.!
Theoretical domain"n Unpredictability: The emergent properties of a
level of organisation cannot be predicted, even in principle, by even the most complete knowledge of the parts, properties and relationships among the parts. "
"n The laws concerning the emergent properties
of a level of organisation cannot be deduced, even in principle, by the laws concerning the lower level relations between the constituent parts."
Unpredictability!
n A specific organisation of matter is correlated to exclusive emergent properties. "
!!
n To be able to explain emergent properties would require:"
"n - the constitution of a new or
reorganised scientific discipline ;"
n - to use new postulates, theories and laws that introduce new terms and patterns suited to the emergent phenomena and properties."
Emergentism-reductionism !in ecology"
è 1) Reduction of!è Ecosystem/community theories and laws !" "to!
è Population theories and laws!! ! !or to!
è theories and laws on individual organisms !!
è 2) Physicalism ⇔ emergentism""è 3) The “true” basic units of ecology !
! Pre-energetic ecology "
§ Forbes (1880, 1887)!§ Clements (1916, 1920,
1935)!§ Phillips (1931, 1935)!
!§ Gleason (1917, 1926)!§ Tansley (1935)!
!!
è Organicism"è Super-organism"
!!"è Individualism"è Random"è Anti-organicism!
INDIVIDUALISTIC, MEROLOGICAL, MECHANISTIC (structure and dynamics of populaDons and communiDes)
Popula'on and community ecology (units of nature)
Gleason 1917, 1926, 1938; Tansley 1935;
Elton 1927; Lotka 1925; Volterra 1926; Gause 1934; D'Ancona 1939;
WhiTaker 1956; Hutchinson 1965; Price, Slo-‐bodchikoff and Gaud 1984; Abele and Thistle 1984; Price 1986; Schoener 1986; Strong, Simberloff, Roughgarden and Diamond 1986;
SYSTEMIC, HOLISTIC, INTEGRATIVE (general funcDons and paTerns of ecological systems)
Popula'on and community ecology (units of nature)
Forbes 1875, 1888; Lindeman 1942, 1941;
Clements 1905, 1916, 1935; Phillips 1931; Tansley 1935; Clements and Shelford 1939;
Andrewartha and Birch 1954, 1984;
Ecosystem Ecology Odum, 1953, 1959, 1971, 1993, 2005;
Evolu'onary biology, evolu'onary ecology (units of selecDon)
Fisher 1924, 1930; Williams 1966; LewonDn 1970; Pianka 1974;
Dawkins 1976, 1988; Maynard-‐Smith 1964, 1976, 1998;
Evolu'onary biology, evolu'onary ecology (units of selecDon)
Allee et. al. 1949
Wynne-‐Edwards 1962;
D.S. Wilson 1975, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1997; Sober and Wilson 1998;
Oyama 1985; LewonDn 1991; Griffiths and Gray 1997; Godfrey-‐Smith 2000; Morange 2001; Okasha 2006;
! Are communities and populations “true” !
basic units of ecology? "ü Individual organisms"§ Lotka (1925), Volterra (1926) ""— Predator/prey interactions;"§ Lack (1954) "— Individual selection"§ Williams (1966) ""—Individual (and gene) selection"§ Andrewartha, Birch (1954, 1984)""— Interplay between individual organisms and environment (“theory of environment”)"§ Schoener (1986), Price (1986), Tilman (1987) "— “Mechanistic” approach!!
ü Population-systems "§ Allee, Park, Emerson, Park, Schmidt (1949) § Wynne-Edwards (1962) § Wilson D.S. (1975, 1980), Sober, Wilson, D.S. 1998) "— Group selection!
è Is it possible to reduce community characteristics to those of component populations and individuals? "
"è Is it possible to reduce
population characteristics to those of component individuals? "
!!!
Ecosystem ecology (Odum E.P., Odum H.T.) "Ontologically holistic""— The basic units of ecology (ecosystem, community, population) are characterized by specific emergent properties""""Methodogically reductionistic"— Multi-layered approach"— Analytical-synthetic method"""""Theoretically reductionistic "— Physicalism"
è “Living organisms and their nonliving (abiotic) environment are inseparably interrelated and interact upon each other.” (Odum 1959, 1971)
è “ The ecosystem is the basic functional unit in ecology, since it includes both organisms (biotic communities) and abiotic environment, each influencing the properties of the other and both necessary for maintenance of life as we have it on the earth” (Odum 1959, 1971)
è “(The principle of hierarchical organization) states simply that it is not necessary to understand precisely how a component of a system is structured from simpler subcomponents in order to predict how it will behave.” (Odum 1971)
è The outcomes of energy evaluation are considered as emergent properties of ecosystems (Odum 1977; Odum, Odum 1955)
Bergandi D (1995) « 'Reductionist holism': an oxymoron or a philosophical chimaera of E.P. Odum's systems ecology », Ludus Vitalis, 3, 5, 145–180 (reprinted in Keller DR, Golley FB (eds) (2000) The philosophy of ecology: from science to synthesis. University of Georgia, Athens (abridged version).!
!Bergandi, D, Blandin, P (1998), « Holism vs reductionism: do ecosystem ecology and landscape ecology clarify the debate? », Acta Biotheoretica, 46, 3, pp. 185-206. !
!Bergandi D (2007) « Niveaux d'organisation: évolution, écologie et transaction », In: Martin, T (ed), Le tout et les parties dans les systèmes naturels, Vuibert, Paris!
!Bergandi D (2011) « Multifaceted ecology between organicism, emergentism and reductionism », In: Schwarz, A, Kurt, J, (ed), Revisited Ecology. Reflecting on C o n c e p t s , A d v a n c i n g S c i e n c e , S p r i n g e r , D o r d r e c h t .!
!Bergandi D (2013), « Ecology, Evolution, Ethics: In Search of a Meta-Paradigm -!An Introduction », In: Bergandi D, The Structural Links between Ecology, Evolution and Ethics: The Virtuous Epistemic Circle, Springer, Dordrecht.!
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