Gell-Mann 1994

Murray GELL-MANN

The Quark and the Jaguar — (éds. françaises : Albin-Michel, 1995 ; Flammarion, 1997)

In my opinion, a great deal of confusion can be avoided, in many different contexts, by making use of the notion of emergence. Some people may ask, « Doesn’t life on Earth somehow involve more than physics and chemistry plus the results of chance events in the history of the planet and the course of biological evolution? Doesn’t mind, including consciousness or self-awareness, somehow involve more than neurobiology and the accidents of primate evolution? Doesn’t there have to be something more? » But they are not taking sufficiently into account the possibility of emergence. Life can perfectly well emerge from the laws of physics plus accidents, and mind, from neurobiology. It is not necessary to assume additional mechanisms or hidden causes. Once emergence is considered, a huge burden is lifted from the inquiring mind. We don’t need something more in order to get something more.
Although the « reduction » of one level of organization to a previous one–plus specific circumstances arising frorn historical accidents–is possible in principle, it is not by itself an adequate strategy for understanding the world. At each level new laws emerge that should be studied for themselves; new phenomena appear that should be appreciated and valued at their own level.
It in no way diminishes the importance of the chemical bond to know that it arises from quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, and the prevalence of temperatures and pressures that allow atoms and molecules to exist. Similarly, it does not diminish the significance of life on Earth to know that it emerged from physics and chemistry and the special historical circumstances permitting the chemical reactions to proceed that produced the ancestral life form and thus initiated biological evolution. Finally, it does not detract from the achievements of the human race, including the triumphs of the human intellect and the glorious works of art that have been produced for tens of thousand of years, to know that our intelligence and self-awareness, greater than those of the other animals, have emerged from the laws of biology plus the specific accidents of hominid evolution.
When we human beings experience awe in the face of the splendors of nature, when we show love for one another, and when we care for our more distant relatives–the other organisms with which we share the biosphere–we are exhibiting aspects of the human condition that are no less wonderful for being emergent phenomena.