IngentaConnect THE EMERGENCE OF TRANSCENDENTAL NORMS IN HUMAN SYSTEMS

Author: Graves, Mark¹

Source: Zygon, Volume 44, Number 3, September 2009 , pp. 501-532(32)

Abstract:

Terrence Deacon has described three orders of emergence; Arthur Peacocke and others have suggested four levels of human systems and sciences; and Philip Clayton has postulated an additional, transcendent, level. Orders and levels describe distinct aspects of emergence, with orders characterizing topological complexity and levels characterizing theoretical knowledge and causal power. By using Deacon's orders to analyze and relate each of the four “lower” levels one can project that analysis on the transcendent level to gain insight into the teleodynamic emergence of transcendent-level systems. I argue that cross-cultural interactions among human cultural-level systems results in the emergence of the “universal” transcendental norms historically characterized as the Greek Good, Beauty, and Truth. These norms require a dynamic existence that I characterize as the emergence of Spirit, using Josiah Royce's community of interpretation, and that I suggest provides a pragmatic clarification of Clayton's transcendent level. An understanding of those emergent norms clarifies ethical systems, highlights the importance of aesthetics in understanding scientific systems, and suggests the necessity of community in fruitful science-and-religion dialogue on human systems.

Keywords: aesthetics; community of scholars; Terrence Deacon; emergence; emergent systems theory; ethics; human systems; orders of emergence; pragmatism; Josiah Royce; science and religion; systems theory; theology and science; transcendentals; transcendent level; universal norms

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2009.01013.x

Affiliations: 1: Scholar in Residence at the Jesuit School of Theology, 1735 Le Roy Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709;, Email: mgraves@jstb.edu.

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