If we were to point out in a few words what characterises the phenomenon of life, we would
probably mention the amazing plasticity and robustness of living systems, the innumerable …

Institutions are the kinds of structures that matter most in the social realm: they make up the
stuff of social life. The increasing acknowledgement of the role of institutions in social life …

Long dismissed as unscientific, teleological explanation has been undergoing something of
a revival as a result of the emergence of self-organization theory, which combines micro …

The world appears to contain diverse kinds of objects and systems—planets, tornadoes,
trees, ant colonies, and human persons, to name but a few—characterized by distinctive …

There is an underlying assumption in the social sciences that consciousness and social life
are ultimately classical physical/material phenomena. In this ground-breaking book …

Diagrammatology investigates the role of diagrams for thought and knowledge. Based on
the general doctrine of diagrams in Charles Peirce's mature work, Diagrammatology claims …

We argue that intelligible appeals to interlevel causes (top-down and bottom-up) can be
understood, without remainder, as appeals to mechanistically mediated effects …

This second edition furthers conversations about the ongoing society-wide and worldwide
digitalization of human communication. Reviewing the long lines in the history of media and …

Interest in emergence amongst philosophers and scientists has grown in recent years, yet
the concept continues to be viewed with skepticism by many. In this book, Paul Humphreys …

Is it true that the universe evolves through an ever-expanding series of levels from quantum
states to consciousness? Philip Clayton introduces the non-expert to emergence theory, one …