A reframed landscape of causal emergence
Abstract
Complex systems can often be analyzed at either the microscale of their individual components or the macroscale of their collective organization, yet it remains debated which level of description offers the most meaningful causal understanding. Hoel's recent study in Patterns addresses this challenge by introducing Causal Emergence 2.0, a novel formalization showing that a system's causal workings are best described by how causal influence is distributed across its hierarchy of scales.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Origins and Evolution of Life
Philosophy and History of Science
Embodied and Extended Cognition
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Patterns
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 101476–101476
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- EN