Head to head
Emergence vs Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos
Emergence (Principle of Consciousness) and Nagel's Mind and Cosmos, compared field by field from their entries in the Atlas.
At a glance
- Emergence belongs to the Materialism family in Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness, Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos to Challenge.
- Emergence treats consciousness as emergent; Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos treats it as fundamental.
- They give the same kind of answer on life after death.
- On AI consciousness, Emergence says “Conditional” and Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos says “Uncertain”.
- On mind uploading, Emergence says “Conditional” and Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos says “Unlikely”.
- On meaning and purpose, Emergence says “Uncertain” and Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos says “Cosmic/Ultimate”.
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The claim
In brief
EmergenceEmergence is the philosophical claim that qualitatively new properties, such as consciousness or psychological states, arise from underlying physical properties governed entirely by physical laws. It is distinguished primarily into weak emergence, which is reducible in principle, and strong emergence, which is fundamentally non-reducible and may necessitate new physical laws.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosThis perspective challenges the prevailing materialist Neo-Darwinian conception of nature, arguing that it fails to account for the irreducible nature of subjective experience, or 'what it is like' to be a conscious organism. It proposes that mind must be incorporated as a fundamental principle of nature itself.
What consciousness is
EmergenceConsciousness is identified as a qualitatively novel property or psychological state arising from physical properties. This concept defines the relationship between mind and matter based on reducibility or non-reducibility to fundamental physics.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosConsciousness is fundamentally subjective experience—'how it is for the subject himself'—which resists reduction to purely physical, third-person descriptions.
Big questions
Can AI be conscious?Differ
EmergenceConditionalIf consciousness is weakly emergent, AI consciousness is certain given sufficient complexity. If strongly emergent, AI consciousness is still possible if non-physical properties emerge from non-biological physical complexity, depending on the meta-psychophysical laws involved.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosUncertainAs a critique of functionalism and reductionism, Nagel's view suggests that purely computational entities lacking fundamental mental properties are likely philosophical zombies; outcome depends on whether future AI can instantiate the hypothesized universal mental principles.
Does consciousness survive death?Both agree
EmergenceConditionalWeak emergence, being close to Materialism, precludes survival. Strong emergence, particularly in the form of Emergent Dualism, could theoretically generate a nonphysical substance (mind/soul) dependent on, but not strictly identical to, the physical brain, allowing for potential independent existence after death, although this is speculative.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosConditionalIf consciousness is a universal, fundamental property rather than a biological emergent, its essence may persist after bodily dissolution (inferred from panpsychist leanings), though likely without retention of personal identity.
EmergenceConditionalIf consciousness is weakly emergent, duplicating the physical states would duplicate the mental states (likely). If strongly emergent, the non-reducible properties and possible downward causation would need to be perfectly captured and recreated in the new medium, posing significant, perhaps insurmountable, technical and conceptual challenges.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosUnlikelyThe irreducibility of subjective experience means duplication of physical/functional patterns alone would fail to transfer the original first-person consciousness.
EmergenceUncertainEmergence, especially strong emergence combined with concepts like top-down causation, offers a framework where higher-level properties like consciousness and its associated values could possess genuine causal power, potentially supporting cosmic purpose or meaning, depending on the resulting ontology.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosCosmic/UltimateExplicitly seeks to incorporate mind as a fundamental natural principle to overcome the 'pointlessness' implied by materialism, suggesting a non-theistic, inherent cosmic purpose or value.
Nature of mind
Ontology
EmergenceHighly variable/Contested. Weak Emergence supports reductive Physicalism. Strong Emergence often implies Non-Reductive Physicalism or a need to expand the conception of nature, potentially requiring new fundamental laws (Naturalistic Dualism or Property Dualism).
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosPhilosophical Challenge (leaning towards Universal Monism/Panpsychism)
Mind and body
EmergenceEmergentist. The mind arises from the body (complex physical systems). The nature of the relationship depends on the type of emergence: Weak suggests reduction in principle; Strong suggests non-reducibility even in principle, often involving downward causation.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosCritiques the current conception of the mind-body relationship, asserting that we lack any conception of how physical and phenomenological aspects could be related or identical.
Fundamental or emergent
EmergenceEmergent
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosPrimitive (or fundamental)
Qualia
EmergenceQualia are the novel, qualitatively new properties (e.g., sensory qualities) that arise from the physical system. Strong emergence views consciousness (and thus qualia) as the clearest case of a strongly emergent phenomenon, fundamentally irreducible to underlying physical facts.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosQualia (felt qualities) are the core of the problem, and Nagel argues that no objective or physicalist explanation currently formulated can account for their subjective reality.
How it works
Mechanism
EmergenceThe principle is the claim that novel, qualitatively distinct properties arise at higher levels of complexity, which is often contrasted with the reductive assumptions of mainstream science.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosPrimarily focuses on exposing the conceptual limits of physical reductionism rather than positing a definitive mechanism. Mechanistically, his solution suggests consciousness arises through the composition of fundamental, panpsychic-like elements.
Where it is
EmergenceTypically localized in complex biological systems (e.g., brains), although strong emergence proponents may argue that AI consciousness is possible if sufficient physical complexity is achieved, regardless of substrate.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosUniversal/Systemic (inferred from universal monism/panpsychism leanings) or inherent in the fabric of nature.
What it does
EmergenceVaries. Weak emergence aligns with standard physical causation. Strong emergence often posits top-down causation, where emergent higher hierarchical levels exert causal force on lower levels, giving the emergent property causal powers.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosPrimarily critical, arguing against the materialist view that consciousness is an inert epiphenomenon. If mind is a fundamental principle, it implies an irreducible, organizing role in the cosmos.
Evidence and criticism
Testability
EmergenceSpeculative and philosophically contentious. Weak emergence is scientifically aligned in principle. Strong emergence is difficult to test empirically because it posits phenomena are non-deducible from fundamental science.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosUncertain/Primarily Conceptual. The theory's strength lies in its diagnosis of the explanatory gap, not in empirical verification. His suggested alternative (panpsychism) is highly speculative.
Tests so far
EmergenceNot stated
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosNot stated
Criticisms
EmergenceIt is criticized by reductive physicalists (like Eliminative Materialists) as having little explanatory value, being superfluous, or acting as a 'restatement of a miracle' that fails to explain *how* unconscious complexity yields consciousness. Strong emergence specifically challenges the causal closure of the physical world.
Nagel’s Mind and CosmosCriticized for retreating to 'mysterianism' and for rejecting established scientific frameworks (Neo-Darwinian materialism) without offering a concrete, robust, and detailed secular ontology as an alternative.
Sources
Key sources
Emergence
- The Re-emergence of Emergence: the Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion, P. Clayton and P. Davies (2008)
- Strong and weak emergence, D. Chalmers (2008)
- Why reductionism does not work, G.F.R. Ellis (2019)
Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos
- What Is It Like to Be a Bat? (1974)
- The View from Nowhere (1986)
- Mind & Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False (2012)