Journal on Policy and Complex Systems
generalization is lawful ( think of the Mendelian laws ) without having any idea how this regularity is rendered lawful or implemented by fundamental laws of physics , even though the former is grounded in the latter . NRPL holds that the nomological structure of the world is completely specifiable by fundamental physics . The special sciences ( simply ) characterize aspects of ( that ) structure ... that are ... amenable to scientific investigation in languages other than ... physics .
As far as it goes , I think NRPL is right : properties at levels more complex than elementary particles may be characterized independently of the properties of their constituents . In explaining how this can happen , I frequently refer to the following examples .
• Make a triangle . Use any rigid materials you want . The sum of the interior angles will be 180 °. Yet that sum has nothing to do with the materials of which the triangle is made . Philosophical functionalism was built on similar observations .
• A heart acts as a pump . Even though a heart has pump functionality , that functionality is not characterized in terms of the properties of a heart ’ s construction materials . A heart has pump functionality because ( among other reasons ) it is arranged as multiple containers with valves and squeezable walls . These properties have no more to do with the properties of the materials out of which a heart is realized than the property of being a triangle has anything to do with the materials one might use to make one . Structure and organization add new and independent properties .
• A concrete canoe floats in water , sinking until the water it displaces outweighs it . Water is displaced because the canoe ’ s bowl-like shape excludes water . The canoe ’ s shape is a property of the canoe as a whole , not of its component materials . As a solid block — or chopped into fragments — the same concrete sinks .
2.2 How a Whole is More than the Sum of Its Parts
There is an important difference between implementing or realizing a property and defining a property in terms of other properties . One implements a triangle , a heart , or a concrete canoe by putting various materials together . One uses those materials because they have certain properties — including being able to be put together in certain ways , and in the case of the canoe and heart being impermeable to water / blood . In that sense , the implemented property depends on properties of the implementing materials .
Nevertheless , the implemented property itself can be independent of the particular implementing material . Any suitable materials will do . This is like saying that a melody , which is notes arranged in a certain way , could not
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