ABSTRACT:
When an Emergence occurs (such as the Origin of Life on Earth) we are most likely to look for progressive and contributing factors in the prior situation, which we imagine mature and proliferate to actually produce the wholly new Level, which is the final result of the Emergence. But that is not the case at all! An Emergence is never such a maturation, but rather than a flowering of the already there, it is initially always a seeming disaster: a cataclysmic dissociation: indeed, the result of an irresolvable crisis! But though we (Mankind) were not present when most Emergences occurred, we can nevertheless uncover the remaining evidence of their occurrences in the Evolution of Life (for example) via the fossil record. Though such concertinaed evidence does not ever reveal the inner processes of dramatic phases of Change, but only their results.
So, to find evidence of those crucial aspects, it must be to their occurrences in Thought and in Social Revolution that we must turn to reveal the crucial phases that bring about such revolutions. Yet, though such Emergences have been happening throughout the development of Reality, they are not the same every time. Indeed, with each succeeding elevation, the possibilities are radically increased. Yet, on the other hand, the actual overall “shape” or “form” of the turnover is indeed repeated. An important rider must be emphasized though! All the seeming pre-requisites in the prior stability, though they cannot bring about the Emergence, certainly play a major role when it is proceeding, along with a multitude of others, which were never an essential forming part of that persisting Level.
Now this was an early paper, and several crucial mistakes are present (particularly those as to the supposedly causing role of precursor processes in the Event, which later studies have proved to be incorrect. Clearly, the purpose of this paper is to map the actual trajectory of the ideas as they developed warts and all!
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SYNOPSIS:
1.The rumblings of an immanent turnover must be evident towards the End of the immediately prior Level, as its stability must be showing signs of crumbling.
2.Those who wish to research such Events are seemingly in no position to do so. For such Events are not usually available to study. But we do have such things as fossils, and evident changes from these do indeed indicate that Evolution itself may well proceed via a series of such Emergences.
3.The skulls of many hominids can infer significant changes in the line which ends with ourselves, and G.G. Simpson’s studies of the development of horses in prehistoric Wyoming presents very similar telling evidence.
4.Important relations between, the teeth, feet and brain of those horses, and between the hand and brain of hominids revealed complex causal relationships which certainly involved the wholly New.
5.Now, none of this proves a thing, and we are not going to experience an Emergence any time soon to confirm its likely trajectory. Yet the most likely place for Emergences to occur, even today, must be in our Thoughts (see Hegel), and in Social Revolutions (see Michelet & Trotsky). Such areas do bring Emergences into human experience and indeed into the possibility of human intervention too!
6.So though most would never indulge in such studies, clearly the most fruitful areas must be in the study of actual Social Revolutions.
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