Integrative level

An integrative level, or level of organization, is a set of phenomena emerging on pre-existing phenomena of lower level. Typical examples include life emerging on non-living substances, and consciousness emerging on nervous systems.

The main levels usually acknowledged are those of matter, life, mind, and society. These are called "strata" in Nicolai Hartmann's ontology. They can be further analyzed into more specific "layers", such as those of particles, atoms, molecules, and rocks forming the material stratum, or those of cells, organisms, populations, and ecosystems forming the life stratum.

The sequence of levels is often described as one of increasing complexity, although it is not clear whether this is always true: for example, parasitism emerges on pre-existing organisms, although parasites are often simpler than their originating forms.

Integrative levels are discussed variously in the work of many philosophers, although only few have dealt with this notion in a systematic way; among them are Samuel Alexander, Conwy Lloyd Morgan, George Conger, Joseph Needham, James K. Feibleman, Nicolai Hartmann, and Roberto Poli. Ideas connected to levels can be found in the works of both materialist philosophers, like Friedrich Engels, and anti-materialist ones, like Henri Bergson.

Integrative levels, or the disciplines focusing on them, form the main classes of several knowledge organization systems, including Roget's Thesaurus, the Bliss bibliographic classification, the Colon classification, and the Information coding classification. Their use as the basis of a general classification of phenomena has been especially studied by Douglas Foskett for the Classification Research Group, and by the [http://www.iskoi.org/ilc/ Integrative Level Classification] project.

References

Alexander S., Space, time and deity, London, 1920

Blitz D., Emergent evolution: qualitative novelty and the levels of reality, Kluwer, 1992

Conger G.P., The doctrine of levels, Journal of philosophy, 22: 1925, 12, p. 309-321

Feibleman J.K., Theory of integrative levels, British journal for the philosophy of science, 5: 1954, 17, p. 59-66

Foskett D.J., The theory of integrative levels and its relevance to the design of information systems, Aslib proceedings, 30: 1978, 6, p. 202-208

Hartmann N., Die Aufbau der realen Welt: Grundriss der allgemeinen Kategorienlehre, De Gruyter, 1940

Hartmann N., New ways of ontology, Greenwood Press, 1952

Morgan C.L., Emergent evolution, Williams and Norgate, London 1923

Needham J., Integrative levels: a revaluation of the idea of progress, in Time: the refreshing river: essays and addresses, 1932-1942, Allen and Unwin, London 1943, p. 233-272

Novikoff A.B., The concept of integrative levels and biology, Science, 101: 1945, p. 209-215

Pettersson M., Complexity and evolution, Cambridge University Press, 1996

Poli R., Levels, Axiomathes, 9: 1998, 1-2. p. 197-211

Poli R., The basic problem of the theory of levels of reality, Axiomathes, 12: 2001, 3-4, p. 261-283