Emergence vs. Reduction in Chemistry

Why a Naturalist Should Be an Emergentist about the Mind

“…The principle of ubiquity does not entail that physical principles determine or fix every physical effect. This principle is compatible with emergentism and downward causation (Hendry 2010, pp. 217ff, Cartwright 1999.…”

“…Citing Woolley and Sutcliffe's symmetry problem, Robin Hendry offers evidence that explanations of chemical structure and bonding involve configurational Hamiltonians. Hendry (2010) argues that reductive physicalism has to posit a mechanism for symmetry-breaking, for which there is no independent evidence beyond the assumption of the completeness of physics or causal closure (to which I shall return below). And Silberstein and McGeever, as well as Campbell and Humphreys argue for evidence for ontological emergence within quantum mechanics and, by extension, as a real feature of the natural world.…”

“…For strong criticism of such views, see Dupré (1993) and Cartwright (1999). See also Bishop, forthcoming, and for evidence against causal closure from quantum mechanics, see Hendry (2010). 27 A stronger view is that there are mental forces that are in principle out of reach of the physiologist: see Lowe (2000).…”

The strong emergence of molecular structure

“…Hendry does not explicitly state what notion of causation he has in mind with reference to DC. He proposes a ‘nomological formulation of emergentism’ which suggests that DC is at least supported (if not understood) in terms of nomological sufficiency ( 2010a : 218). On the other hand, Hendry examines DC with respect to Kim’s examination of the overdetermination problem and of the CCP.…”

“…According to this criterion, ‘a system exhibits downward causation if its behaviour would be different were it determined by the more basic laws governing the stuff of which it is made’ (Hendry 2010b : 189). He claims this criterion is satisfied in the case of molecular structure given how quantum mechanics describes it, which is as follows: A molecule is described by the Coulombic Schrödinger equation which is constructed by employing the so-called ‘resultant Hamiltonian’ (Hendry 2010a : 210–211, 213). The resultant Hamiltonian takes into account all the intra-molecular interactions, and it is constructed using as input only fundamental physical interactions and the value of the physical properties of the entities (i.e.…”