Further, every resultant is clearly traceable in its components, because these are homogeneous and commensurable. Lewes coined the term 'emergent' in 1875, distinguishing it from the merely 'resultant':Įvery resultant is either a sum or a difference of the co-operant forces their sum, when their directions are the same – their difference, when their directions are contrary.
The many scientists and philosophers who have written on the concept include John Stuart Mill ( Composition of Causes, 1843) and Julian Huxley (1887–1975). This concept of emergence dates from at least the time of Aristotle. Nicolai Hartmann (1882–1950), one of the first modern philosophers to write on emergence, termed this a categorial novum (new category).
An emergent property of a system, in this context, is one that is not a property of any component of that system, but is still a feature of the system as a whole. Philosophers often understand emergence as a claim about the etiology of a system's properties.
