The Cathedral · plan
You are in a meeting and someone makes a proposal. In the next few seconds all three of the book's principles operate at once. Choose a moment to see its path through the four kingdoms.
Upward constraint · from molecules to mind
What is observed
Upward constraint: what a higher level can be is limited by the levels beneath it.
Kingdoms this moment reaches: Molecules, Body and sense, Mind
Upward emergence · in the mind
What is observed
Upward emergence: higher levels show properties that their parts do not have.
Still argued about
What emergence ultimately is remains disputed: whether properties of the whole are new in reality, or new only in our descriptions of it.
Kingdoms this moment reaches: Mind
Downward causation · from mind to molecules
What is observed
Downward causation: higher levels reshape the levels beneath them.
Still argued about
Philosophers still dispute whether the higher level is itself the cause, or only the lower-level processes that make it up.
Kingdoms this moment reaches: Mind, Relationships, Body and sense, Molecules
Experiments you run on yourself
Every claim, with its mark and sources
Chapters that are not made into experiments
Contents, the letter and the reader circle