Editing Vitalism (section)

==Emergentism ==
{{main|Emergentism}}

Contemporary science and engineering sometimes describe [[emergence|emergent processes]], in which the properties of a system cannot be fully described in terms of the properties of the constituents.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schultz |first=S.G. |title=A century of (epithelial) transport physiology: from vitalism to molecular cloning |journal=The American Journal of Physiology |volume=274 |issue=1 Pt 1 |pages=C13–23 |year=1998 |pmid=9458708 |doi=10.1152/ajpcell.1998.274.1.C13 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gilbert |first1=S.F. |last2=Sarkar |first2=S. |title=Embracing complexity: organicism for the 21st century |journal=Developmental Dynamics |volume=219 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |year=2000 |pmid=10974666 |doi=10.1002/1097-0177(2000)9999:9999<::AID-DVDY1036>3.0.CO;2-A |doi-access=free }}</ref> This may be because the properties of the constituents are not fully understood, or because the interactions between the individual constituents are important for the behavior of the system.

Whether emergence should be grouped with traditional vitalist concepts is a matter of semantic controversy.{{efn|See;<ref>{{cite web |last1=O’Connor |first1=Timothy |title=Emergent Properties |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/properties-emergent/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |date=2021}}</ref> briefly, some philosophers see emergentism as midway between traditional spiritual vitalism and mechanistic reductionism; others argue that, structurally, emergentism is equivalent to vitalism. See also.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Emmeche|first=C|title=Does a robot have an Umwelt? Reflections on the qualitative biosemiotics of Jakob von Uexküll |journal=Semiotica |date=16 July 2001 |volume=2001 |issue=134 |pages=653–693 |doi=10.1515/semi.2001.048|url=http://www.nbi.dk/~emmeche/cePubl/2001d.robumwelt.pdf}}</ref>}} According to Emmeche ''et al.'' (1997):

{{quote|On the one hand, many scientists and philosophers regard emergence as having only a pseudo-scientific status. On the other hand, new developments in physics, biology, psychology, and cross-disciplinary fields such as cognitive science, artificial life, and the study of non-linear dynamical systems have focused strongly on the high level 'collective behaviour' of complex systems, which is often said to be truly emergent, and the term is increasingly used to characterize such systems.|<ref name="Emmeche 1997">Emmeche, C. (1997) Explaining Emergence: towards an ontology of levels. ''Journal for General Philosophy of Science'' [http://alf.nbi.dk/~emmeche/coPubl/97e.EKS/emerg.html available online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061006171903/http://alf.nbi.dk/~emmeche/coPubl/97e.EKS/emerg.html |date=2006-10-06 }}</ref>}}