Autor: Melchin, R. Kenneth

Buch: History, Ethics and Emegent Probability

Titel: History, Ethics and Emegent Probability

Stichwort: Ethik und Geschichte 3; Integration - normative Dynamik; Definition: Emergenz (emergence): Nicht-Sein -> Sein; Entwicklung: Prinzip der Entsprechung (correspondence); statische und dynamische Integration

Kurzinhalt: The transition or dynamic structure of the movement from non-presence to presence is what is meant here by emergence. And what emerges is being ...

Textausschnitt: 80/6 Schemes emerge and function when their conditions are fulfilled. And their functioning effects a higher order integration of lower order manifolds. The foundation of the normative dynamism of development is this relationship between the higher order integration and the lower order manifold. For the integration marks the presence of emergent system, emergent intelligibility, in a manifold of events whose recurrence is otherwise coincidental or non-systematic. Such an emergence is not necessarily the emergence of a new recurrence scheme. Rather, the routine functioning of older schemes can have the effect of regularly ordering the materials of a lower manifold. And Lonergan provides a number of examples of such emergent integrations. (193; Fs)

First, there is the already familiar principle of emergence. Otherwise coincidental manifolds of lower conjugate acts invite the higher integration effected by higher conjugate forms. Thus, in our account of explanatory genera, chemical elements and compounds are higher integrations of otherwise coincidental manifolds of subatomic events; organisms are higher integrations of otherwise coincidental manifolds of chemical processes; sensitive consciousness is a higher integration of otherwise coincidental manifolds of changes in neural tissues; and accumulating insights are higher integrations of otherwise coincidental manifoldsof images or data.1

81/6 Most simply the normative dynamism of development is rooted in the relationship between being and non-being. A coincidental manifold exhibits an absence of system in its recurring events; an absence of intelligibility; an absence of 'form.' When the appropriate conditions are fulfilled the higher order integration of the manifold is the presence of system; the presence of intelligibility; the presence of 'form.' The difference between the two states of the manifold is precisely this presence or absence. The transition or dynamic structure of the movement from non-presence to presence is what is meant here by emergence. And what emerges is being (the term or object of a potential or actual act of intelligence). In each of his examples above, Lonergan is pointing to instances of the emergence of being from non-being. It would appear that the most basic, the most fundamental foundation for any normative or evaluative predication is conceived by Lonergan to be this dynamic relationship between being and non-being. Thus it is not coincidental that Lonergan's eighteenth chapter of Insight on 'The Possibility of Ethics' begins a presentation of 'The Notion of the Good' with the statement 'As being is intelligible and one, so also it is good.'2 For without this most basic equation (or its opposite) any notion of norm or valuation is utterly precluded from the outset. (193f; Fs) (notabene)
82/6 I think it is worth noting here that the foundation of normative predication, within the context of Lonergan's analysis, is not simply this identity of being as good. Rather, a norm is a dynamic relationship and the possibility of such a dynamism is the possibility of emergence of being from non-being. Furthermore as we move progressively towards a distinctively moral or ethical normative foundation, a further number of elements need to be identified and distinguished. (194; Fs)

83/6 The normative dynamism of development is not simply the fact that emergent and operative schemes can order a coincidental manifold. For 'significantly different underlying manifolds require different higher integrations.'3 This was the point which was most relevant in the discussion of dialectic above.4 The manifold is open to specific types of integrations in accordance with narrower or wider ranges of flexibility. In his 'principle of correspondence,' Lonergan expresses this fact that a manifold has an exigence for a specific form or range of forms of integrations, so that development is not simply a matter of any development in any direction. (194; Fs)

Thus, the chemical elements differ by atomic numbers and atomic weights, and these differences are grounded in the underlying manifold. Different aggregates of aggregates of chemical processes involve different organisms. Neural events in the eye and in the ear call forth different conscious experiences. Different data lead to different theories.5
84/6 But in addition to this exigence for appropriate integration, a manifold has a greater or lesser flexible range of possibilities. And so while development is directed it is not simply a matter of events following upon the recurrence of systematic processes. The presence of randomness in the manifold is the condition of possibility for the emergence of system. And in some cases this flexibility has the curious effect of promoting and sustaining continued development. This brings us to the final aspect of Lonergan's notion of development which is relevant for our purposes here. (194; Fs) (notabene)

There follows at once a distinction between static and dynamic higher integrations. Every higher integration systematizes an otherwise coincidental manifold, but the systematization may be effected in two different manners. It is static when it dominates the lower manifold with complete success and thereby brings about a notable imperviousness to change. Thus, the inert gases lock coincidental manifolds of subatomic events in remarkably permanent routines. On the other hand, the higher integration is dynamic when it is not content to systematize the underlying manifold but keeps adding to it and modifying it until, by the principle of correspondence, the existing integration is eliminated and, by the principle of emergence, a new integration is introduced.6 (notabene)
84/6 The distinctive meaning of the term development involves this continued process of emergent integration which orders, but also transforms the manifold so as to call forth a new integration. In this manner the practical application of intelligence has the twofold effect of constituting an order both in the subjective and intersubjective repertoire of skills (thus ordering the subsequent course of events) and in the subject's routine or habitual spontaneity (thus constituting the subject's own affective and intelligent orientation to reality).7 Practical activity changes the subject. And this change is the condition of possibility for the assimilation and adaptation developmental scheme involved in the acquisition of skills.8 (195; Fs)

85/6 The notion of progress is the distinctively human occurrence of this normative structure of emergence and development in a history of events whose constitutive characteristic is the mediating function of meaning. Progress consists in the continued emergence of being through the performance of the human acts of practical intelligence, within narrower or wider ranges of possibilities. The normative dynamism of progress is most fundamentally rooted in this relationship between being and non-being. But because of the profound import of the self-constituting operation of practical intelligence, progress in human history also means sustained and self-sustaining development. I would suggest that it is in these terms that we can gain a fresh, and perhaps an illuminating perspective on the question of the foundations of moral value. (195; Fs)