Integrative level

Short description: Set of phenomena emerging from pre-existing phenomena

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.

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
• The central science
• Tree of knowledge system
• Unity of science
• Vitalism

References

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• Alexander, Samuel (1920). Space, time, and deity: the Gifford lectures at Glasgow, 1916–1918. 1916–18. London: Macmillan. OCLC 1041642. https://archive.org/details/spacetimeanddeit00alexuoft. 
• Sellars, Roy Wood (1922). Evolutionary naturalism. Chicago: Open Court Publishing. OCLC 172131. https://archive.org/details/evolutionarynat00selluoft. 
• Morgan, C. Lloyd (1923). Emergent evolution. Gifford lectures. London: Williams and Norgate. OCLC 3140885. https://archive.org/details/emergentevolutio032372mbp. 
• Conger, George P. (4 June 1925). "The doctrine of levels". The Journal of Philosophy 22 (12): 309–321. doi:10.2307/2014178. 
• Wheeler, William Morton (1928). Emergent evolution and the development of societies. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. OCLC 3399922. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001491952. 
• Needham, Joseph (1943). "Integrative levels: a revaluation of the idea of progress". Time: the refreshing river (essays and addresses, 1932–1942). London: G. Allen & Unwin. pp. 233–272. OCLC 1148711. https://archive.org/details/timerefreshingri00need/page/233. 
• Hartmann, Nicolai (1940). Der Aufbau der realen Welt: Grundriß der allgemeinen Kategorienlehre. Ontologie. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110823844. ISBN 9783110823844. OCLC 174268798. https://books.google.com/books?id=4QtwKnkhwocC. 
• Novikoff, Alex B. (March 1945). "The concept of integrative levels and biology". Science 101 (2618): 209–215. doi:10.1126/science.101.2618.209. PMID 17814095. Bibcode: 1945Sci...101..209N. 
• Hartmann, Nicolai (1952). New ways of ontology. Chicago: H. Regnery Co.. OCLC 888650. https://archive.org/details/newwaysofontolog00hart. 
• Feibleman, James K. (May 1954). "Theory of integrative levels". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 5 (17): 59–66. doi:10.1093/bjps/V.17.59. 
• Boulding, Kenneth Ewart (April 1956). "General systems theory: the skeleton of science". Management Science 2 (3): 197–208. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2.3.197. http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/general_systems_theory_-_the_skeleton_of_science.pdf. 
• Sellars, Roy Wood (September 1959). "Levels of causality: the emergence of guidance and reason in nature". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 20 (1): 1–17. doi:10.2307/2104949. 
• Simon, Herbert A. (December 1962). "The architecture of complexity". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106 (6): 467–482. 
• Bertalanffy, Ludwig von (1968). General system theory: foundations, development, applications. New York: G. Braziller. OCLC 1465. https://archive.org/details/generalsystemthe0000bert. 
• Bunge, Mario (1973). "The metaphysics, epistemology and methodology of levels". Method, model, and matter. Synthese library. Dordrecht; Boston: D. Reidel. pp. 160–168. doi:10.1007/978-94-010-2519-5_9. ISBN 9027702527. OCLC 613670. https://books.google.com/books?id=2bUqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA160. 
• Foskett, Douglas John (June 1978). "The theory of integrative levels and its relevance to the design of information systems". ASLIB Proceedings 30 (6): 202–208. doi:10.1108/eb050633. 
• Greenberg, Gary; Tobach, Ethel, eds (1984). Behavioral evolution and integrative levels. The T. C. Schneirla conference series. 1. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0898593638. OCLC 10997500. https://books.google.com/books?id=4CiiAwAAQBAJ. 
• O'Neill, Robert V.; Deangelis, Donald Lee; Waide, J. B.; Allen, Timothy F. H. (1986). A hierarchical concept of ecosystems. Monographs in population biology. 23. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 069108436X. OCLC 13526197. https://archive.org/details/hierarchicalconc00onei. 
• Greenberg, Gary; Tobach, Ethel, eds (1987). Cognition, language, and consciousness: integrative levels. The T. C. Schneirla conference series. 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0898597226. OCLC 15317589. https://books.google.com/books?id=FfmGWzzcSooC. 
• Blitz, David (1992). Emergent evolution: qualitative novelty and the levels of reality. Episteme. 19. Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. doi:10.1007/978-94-015-8042-7. ISBN 0792316584. OCLC 25370568. https://books.google.com/books?id=Hm0yBwAAQBAJ. 
• Pettersson, Max (1996). Complexity and evolution. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511565564. ISBN 052145400X. OCLC 34543726. https://books.google.com/books?id=7QzDeRm6FK8C.  Foreword by Joseph Needham.
• Poli, Roberto (September 2001). "The basic problem of the theory of levels of reality". Axiomathes 12 (3–4): 261–283. doi:10.1023/A:1015845217681. 
• Bunge, Mario (2003). Emergence and convergence: qualitative novelty and the unity of knowledge. Toronto studies in philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442674356. ISBN 0802088600. OCLC 52411064. https://books.google.com/books?id=3UxhBgAAQBAJ. 
• DiFrisco, James (August 2017). "Time scales and levels of organization". Erkenntnis 82 (4): 795–818. doi:10.1007/s10670-016-9844-4. 
• Brooks, Daniel Stephen; Eronen, Markus I. (June 2018). "The significance of levels of organization for scientific research: a heuristic approach". Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 68–69: 34–41. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2018.04.003. PMID 29653763. https://research.rug.nl/files/78646937/63410204_4521941_BrooksEronen2018.pdf. 
• Brooks, Daniel Stephen; DiFrisco, James; Wimsatt, William C., eds (2021). Levels of organization in the biological sciences. Vienna series in theoretical biology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/12389.001.0001. ISBN 9780262045339. OCLC 1184123324. 

Arguments against levels of organization

• Eronen, Markus I.; Brooks, Daniel Stephen (5 February 2018). "Levels of organization in biology". in Zalta, Edward N.. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2018 ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/levels-org-biology/.  See the section: "2.4 Levels skepticism and deflationary accounts".
• Eronen, Markus I. (January 2015). "Levels of organization: a deflationary account". Biology and Philosophy 30 (1): 39–58. doi:10.1007/s10539-014-9461-z. https://philpapers.org/archive/EROLOO.pdf. 
• Eronen, Markus I. (3 August 2015). "Are there levels out there?". http://scientiasalon.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/are-there-levels-out-there/. 
• Eronen, Markus I. (December 2013). "No levels, no problems: downward causation in neuroscience". Philosophy of Science 80 (5): 1042–1052. doi:10.1086/673898. https://research.rug.nl/files/62438349/No_Levels_No_Problems.pdf. 
• Guttman, Burton S. (February 1976). "Is 'levels of organization' a useful biological concept?". BioScience 26 (2): 112–113. doi:10.2307/1297326. 
• 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. 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. https://books.google.com/books?id=FeU3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA161. 
• Potochnik, Angela (2021). "Our world isn't organized into levels". in Brooks, Daniel S.; DiFrisco, James; Wimsatt, William C.. Levels of organization in the biological sciences. Vienna series in theoretical biology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 61–76. doi:10.7551/mitpress/12389.003.0007. ISBN 9780262045339. OCLC 1184123324. https://philarchive.org/archive/POTOWI. 
• Potochnik, Angela; McGill, Brian J. (January 2012). "The limitations of hierarchical organization". Philosophy of Science 79 (1): 120–140. doi:10.1086/663237. https://philarchive.org/archive/POTTLO-2. 
• Schaffer, Jonathan (September 2003). "Is there a fundamental level?". Noûs 37 (3): 498–517. doi:10.1111/1468-0068.00448. http://www.jonathanschaffer.org/fundamental.pdf. 
• 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. https://books.google.com/books?id=EWU-e4uCRMEC.