Novelty, indeterminism, and emergence An introduction

Background The Classical Paper of this issue was written in 1939 by the philosopher W.T. Stace who argued against the metaphysical viability of emergence in a manner similar to that found in two previous reprints in E:CO, namely, that of Stephen Pepper ( 1926, 2004) and Charles Baylis (1929, 2006). Stace, born in London and educated in Scotland and Ireland, spent his early years, 1910-1932, in the civil service in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), becoming mayor of its main city, Colombo, at the end of this period. In 1932, Stace's official role of philosopher started when moved to the US in order to become a member of the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University where he stayed until his retirement in 1955. Stace's philosophical writings covered a variety of topics including Hegel, aesthetics, mysticism, and the free will/determinism controversy. He was a well regarded philosopher who authored numerous books and articles. In particular, he championed a view of philosophical 'compatibilism' which attempted to reconcile strict determinism with free will (Stace, 1952). This is relevant to his attitude toward emergence which we'll come back to later. Incidentally, Stace retired to Laguna Beach, California when it was becoming a center of the counter culture, eventually becoming the home of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, the Timothy Leary inspired commune and source of the infamous 'Orange Sunshine' brand of LSD (the area used to be an important center for orange groves). I mention this because in his later years Stace wrote about mysticism, including the use of psychedelic drugs to induce mystical experiences. As far as I can tell, Stace didn't fall under the spell of Leary (by the way, another frequent visitor to Laguna Beach in those years was Charles Manson!). But not a few notable British intellectuals spent their waning years waxing high on psychedelics and contemplating the blue Pacific, e.g., Aldous Huxley, Gregory Bateson, and others. Thus, I find it interesting that Stace (1960) concluded,