This presentation will discuss implications of the recent proposal of Terrence Deacon to unify physical and human sciences by focusing on the constraints of matter – »the absent rather than the present« – thereby resorting to the emergence of morphodynamic from thermodynamic, and teleodynamic from morphodynamic processes. Deacon’s proposal will be reviewed on the background of Mark Bedau’s suggestion to define (weak) emergence in respect to computer-based simulation. And it will be questioned in regard to Heinz von Foerster’s invitation to consider the observer in each conception with aspiration to a Theory of Everything.
Manfred Füllsack: Universitätsprofessor für Systemwissenschaften am Institut für Systemwissenschaften, Innovations- und Nachhaltigkeitsforschung (ISIS), Universität Graz; Arbeitsschwerpunkte: Theorie sozialer Systeme, Netzwerk- und Spieltheorie, Theorien der Arbeit.