An integrative level, or level of organization, is a set of phenomena emerging from pre-existing phenomena of a lower level. The levels concept is an intellectual framework for structuring reality. It arranges all entities, structures, and processes in the universe, or in a certain field of study, into a hierarchy, typically based on how complex their organization is. When arranged this way, each entity is three things at the same time: It is made up of parts from the previous level below. It is a whole in its own right. And it is a part of the whole that is on the next level above. Typical examples include life emerging from non-living substances, and consciousness emerging from nervous systems.
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Levels
The main levels usually acknowledged are those of matter, life, mind, and society. These are called strata in philosopher Nicolai Hartmann's ontology. They can be further analyzed into more specific layers, such as those of particles, atoms, molecules, and rocks forming the material stratum, or those of cells, organisms, populations, and ecosystems forming the life stratum.
The sequence of levels is often described as one of increasing complexity, although it is not clear whether this is always true: for example, parasitism emerges on pre-existing organisms, although parasites are often simpler than their originating forms.
Philosophies
Ideas connected to integrative levels can be found in the works of both materialist philosophers and anti-materialist ones. Some philosophers and scientists have argued against certain ideas about levels of organization (see § Arguments against levels of organization).
See also
- Antireductionism
- Big History
- Biological organisation
- Boundary problem (spatial analysis)
- Hierarchy theory
- Level of analysis
- Mereology
- Mereotopology
- Model of hierarchical complexity
- Modifiable areal unit problem
- Nicolai Hartmann
- Scale (analytical tool)
- Spatial scale
- Structuralism (biology)
- The central science
- Tree of knowledge system
- Unity of science
- Vitalism
References
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- Hartmann, Nicolai (1940). Der Aufbau der realen Welt: Grundriß der allgemeinen Kategorienlehre. Ontologie. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110823844. ISBN 9783110823844. OCLC 174268798.
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Arguments against levels of organization
- Eronen, Markus I.; Brooks, Daniel Stephen (5 February 2018). "Levels of organization in biology". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2018 ed.). See the section: "2.4 Levels skepticism and deflationary accounts".
- Eronen, Markus I. (January 2015). "Levels of organization: a deflationary account" (PDF). Biology and Philosophy. 30 (1): 39–58. doi:10.1007/s10539-014-9461-z.
- Eronen, Markus I. (3 August 2015). "Are there levels out there?". scientiasalon.wordpress.com. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
- Eronen, Markus I. (December 2013). "No levels, no problems: downward causation in neuroscience" (PDF). Philosophy of Science. 80 (5): 1042–1052. doi:10.1086/673898. JSTOR 10.1086/673898.
- Guttman, Burton S. (February 1976). "Is 'levels of organization' a useful biological concept?". BioScience. 26 (2): 112–113. doi:10.2307/1297326. JSTOR 1297326.
- Noble, Denis (February 2012). "A theory of biological relativity: no privileged level of causation". Interface Focus. 2 (1): 55–64. doi:10.1098/rsfs.2011.0067. PMC 3262309. PMID 23386960.
- Potochnik, Angela (2017). "Levels and fields of science". Idealization and the aims of science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 161–197. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226507194.001.0001. ISBN 9780226507057. OCLC 975478843.
- Potochnik, Angela (2021). "Our world isn't organized into levels". In Brooks, Daniel S.; DiFrisco, James; Wimsatt, William C. (eds.). Levels of organization in the biological sciences (PDF). Vienna series in theoretical biology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 61–76. doi:10.7551/mitpress/12389.003.0007. ISBN 9780262045339. OCLC 1184123324.
- Potochnik, Angela; McGill, Brian J. (January 2012). "The limitations of hierarchical organization" (PDF). Philosophy of Science. 79 (1): 120–140. doi:10.1086/663237. JSTOR 10.1086/663237.
- Schaffer, Jonathan (September 2003). "Is there a fundamental level?" (PDF). Noûs. 37 (3): 498–517. doi:10.1111/1468-0068.00448. JSTOR 3506125.
- Thalos, Mariam (2013). Without hierarchy: the scale freedom of the universe. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199917648.001.0001. ISBN 9780199917648. OCLC 827008044.
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