ABSTRACT
By common definition, emergence means “to come forth from concealment or obscurity” (Webster’s Dictionary). In the context of this book, emergence also implies “without prescription or stipulation.” That is, in contrast to a developmental process that unfolds according to a prescribed plan or blueprint contained within the organism, an emergentist view holds that a variety of biases, some quite subtle, and some residing as much in the environment as in the organism, might coalesce to produce a phenotype so constrained that it is often characterized as innate. Such an emergentist view has considerable appeal, provided that one can conduct appropriate empirical investigations to reveal just what the constraints are, when they operate, and how they interact.
