Lloyd Morgan’s System of Emergent Evolution

Abstract

Lloyd Morgan developed his system of emergent evolution in the two volumes of his Gifford Lectures, delivered in 1922–23 and published as Emergent Evolution (1923) and Life, Spirit and Mind (1926). He also set out his philosophy in the last of his books, Emergence of Novelty (1933), and in articles published in the Monist, Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Studies, and other reviews. The theses of his developed system can be divided into four groups: those concerning emergence and evolution, those concerning the levels of reality, those concerning the nature of mind, and those concerning the evolution of society. While Lloyd Morgan made a considerable contribution to the philosophical analysis of novelty in evolution, his work was not without serious problems which resulted from his combination of emergentist concepts with dual aspect notions related to neutral monism.