Novelty and autonomy as bases for, or alternatives to, a conception of emergence in physics - a podcast by MCMP Team

Karen Crowther (Sydney) gives a talk at the MCMP conference "Reduction and Emergence in the Sciences" (14-16 November, 2013) titled "Novelty and autonomy as bases for, or alternatives to, a conception of emergence in physics". Abstract: An effective theory in physics is one that is supposed to apply only at a given length (or energy) scale; the framework of effective field theory (EFT) describes a ‘tower’ of theories each applying at different length scales, where each ‘level’ up is a shorter-scale theory. A subtlety regarding the use and necessity of EFTs means that any conception of emergence related to reduction is irrelevant, failing to capture the relations of interest in these real physical cases. A positive conception of emergence, based on the novelty and autonomy of the ‘levels’, is developed by considering other physical examples, including critical phenomena, symmetry-breaking and hydrodynamics, in addition to EFT more generally.

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