An integrative level, or level of organization, is a set of phenomena emerging In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems on pre-existing phenomena of lower level. Typical examples include life Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes (biology) from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate emerging on non-living substances, and consciousness Consciousness is variously defined as subjective experience, awareness, the ability to experience "feeling", wakefulness, or the executive control system of the mind. It is an umbrella term that may refer to a variety of mental phenomena. Although humans realize what everyday experiences are, consciousness refuses to be defined, emerging on nervous systems The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous system contains the brain, spinal cord, and retina.
The main levels usually acknowledged are those of matter, life, mind, and society. These are called strata in Nicolai Hartmann Nicolai Hartmann was a German philosopher'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 In general usage, complexity tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement. The study of these complex linkages is the main goal of network theory and network science. In science there are at this time a number of approaches to characterizing complexity, many of which are reflected in this article. In a, although it is not clear whether this is always true: for example, parasitism Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host emerges on pre-existing organisms, although parasites are often simpler than their originating forms.
Integrative levels are discussed variously in the work of many philosophers, although only few have dealt with this notion in a systematic way; among them are Samuel Alexander Samuel Alexander OM was an Australian-born British philosopher. He was the first Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college, Conwy Lloyd Morgan C. Lloyd Morgan (6 February 1852 - 6 March 1936) was a British psychologist. He is best remembered for the experimental approach to animal psychology now known as "Morgan's canon", George Conger, Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA , also known as Li Yuese (simplified Chinese: 李约瑟; traditional Chinese: 李約瑟; pinyin: Lǐ Yuēsè: Wade-Giles: Li Yüeh-Sê), was a British academic and sinologist known for his research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, James K. Feibleman, Nicolai Hartmann Nicolai Hartmann was a German philosopher, and Roberto Poli. Ideas connected to levels can be found in the works of both materialist philosophers, like Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of communist theory, alongside Karl Marx. Together they produced The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Engels also edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital after Marx's death, and anti-materialist ones, like Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century.
Integrative levels, or the disciplines focusing on them, form the main classes of several knowledge organization systems, including Roget's Thesaurus Roget's Thesaurus is a widely-used English thesaurus, created by Dr. Peter Mark Roget in 1805 and released to the public on 29 April 1852. The original edition had 15,000 words, and each new edition has been larger. The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum houses the original manuscript in its collection, the Bliss bibliographic classification The Bliss bibliographic classification is a library classification system that was created by Henry E. Bliss (1870–1955), published in four volumes between 1940 and 1953. Although originally devised in the United States, it was more commonly adopted by British libraries than by American ones. A second edition of the system (BC2) has been, the Colon classification Colon classification is a system of library classification developed by S. R. Ranganathan. It was the first ever faceted (or analytico-synthetic) classification. The first edition was published in 1933. Since then six more editions have been published. It is especially used in libraries in India, and the Information coding classification. Their use as the basis of a general classification of phenomena has been especially studied by Douglas Foskett for the Classification Research Group, and by the Integrative Level Classification project.
References
Alexander S., Space, time and deity, London, 1920
Blitz D., Emergent evolution: qualitative novelty and the levels of reality, Kluwer, 1992
Conger G.P., The doctrine of levels, Journal of philosophy, 22: 1925, 12, p. 309-321
Feibleman J.K., Theory of integrative levels, British journal for the philosophy of science, 5: 1954, 17, p. 59-66
Foskett D.J., The theory of integrative levels and its relevance to the design of information systems, Aslib proceedings, 30: 1978, 6, p. 202-208
Hartmann N., Die Aufbau der realen Welt: Grundriss der allgemeinen Kategorienlehre, De Gruyter, 1940
Hartmann N., New ways of ontology, Greenwood Press, 1952
Morgan C.L., Emergent evolution, Williams and Norgate, London 1923
Needham J., Integrative levels: a revaluation of the idea of progress, in Time: the refreshing river: essays and addresses, 1932-1942, Allen and Unwin, London 1943, p. 233-272
Novikoff A.B., The concept of integrative levels and biology, Science, 101: 1945, p. 209-215
Pettersson M., Complexity and evolution, Cambridge University Press, 1996
Poli R., Levels, Axiomathes, 9: 1998, 1-2. p. 197-211
Poli R., The basic problem of the theory of levels of reality, Axiomathes, 12: 2001, 3-4, p. 261-283
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