Emergence in Sociology: Contemporary Philosophy of Mind and Some Implications for Sociological Theory

TLDR

Emergence is invoked to explain how collective phenomena arise from individuals, yet sociologists disagree on whether these properties can be reduced to individual-level explanations, resulting in contradictory and unstable uses of the concept. This article clarifies the situation by developing an account of emergence grounded in contemporary philosophy of mind. The authors construct this philosophy‑of‑mind–based account and apply it to evaluate conflicting sociological theories of emergence. The study identifies several unresolved issues confronting sociological theories of emergence.

Abstract

Many accounts of the micro‐macro link use the philosophical notion of emergence to argue that collective phenomena are collaboratively created by individuals yet are not reducible to explanation in terms of individuals. However, emergence has also been invoked by methodological individualists; they accept the existence of emergent social properties yet claim that such properties can be reduced to explanations in terms of individuals and their relationships. Thus, contemporary sociological uses of emergence are contradictory and unstable. This article clarifies this situation by developing an account of emergence based in contemporary philosophy of mind. The philosophical account is used to evaluate contradictory sociological theories. Several unresolved issues facing theories of emergence in sociology are identified.