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SUMMARY:Emergence\, Top Down Causation and Reductionism - Prof. George F. 
 R. Ellis\, University of Cape Town
DTSTART:20130430T120000Z
DTEND:20130430T130000Z
UID:TALK44356@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:25203
DESCRIPTION:Higher level properties such as life and thought emerge out of
  lower level properties characterised by physics. It would seem however th
 at the physics\, being causally closed\, completely determines what happen
 s at all higher levels: so how is the room for any higher level causal pow
 ers to emerge? Higher levels must be epiphenomena. This talk will argue th
 at as well as bottom up causation\, top-down effects occur in the hierarch
 y of structure and causation\, allowing emergence of higher levels with ge
 nuine causal powers\; and will consider how this is possible in the face o
 f lower level physical and chemical causation. Digital computers provide a
 n illuminating example of how this can happen: in that case\, abstract alg
 orithms rather than physics drive what happens.
LOCATION:Garden Room\, Library Building\, St. Edmund’s College
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