Dynamism of the Real: Emergence in Lonergan and Zubiri
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/ryf.vol290.i1468.y2026.008Keywords:
emergent realities, strong emergence, Lonergan, Zubiri, reductionism, extrinsecismAbstract
The article analyzes the emergentist positions of Lonergan and Zubiri. Emergentism, especially since the twentieth century, has been a philosophical position that tries to oppose reductionist perspectives which deny the genuine emergence of new realities in the universe. However, within the Catholic context of the twentieth century—particularly in discussions of evolution, where the divine action in the emergence of the human being was often denied—it became common to invoke an extrinsic divine intervention beyond the natural order to explain such a phenomenon. Assuming this framework, the article aims to examine how both thinkers conceive the intrinsic dynamism of the material cosmos, understood as the principle that makes possible the emergence of new and more complex realities without appealing to external causes or to the natural process itself.
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