From electrons to elephants and elections : exploring the role of content and context This highly interdisciplinary book covering more than six fields from philosophy and sciences all the way up to the humanities and with contributions from eminent authors addresses the interplay between content and context reductionism and holism and their meeting point: the notion of emergence. Much of today’s science is reductionist (bottom up); in other words behaviour on one level is explained by reducing it to components on a lower level. Chemistry is reduced to atoms ecosystems are explained in terms of DNA and proteins etc. This approach fails quickly since we can’t cannot extrapolate to the properties of atoms solely from Schrödingers equation nor figure out protein folding from an amino acid sequence or obtain the phenotype of an organism from its genotype. An alternative approach to this is holism (top down). Consider an ecosystem or an organism as a whole: seek patterns on the same scale. Model a galaxy not as 400 billion point masses (stars) but as an object in its own right with its own properties (spiral elliptic). Or a hurricane as a structured form of moist air and water vapour. Reductionism is largely about content whereas holistic models are more attuned to context. Reductionism (content) and holism (context) are not opposing philosophies — in fact they work best in tandem. Join us on a journey to understand the multifaceted dialectic concerning this duo and how they shape the foundations of sciences and humanities our thoughts and the very nature of reality itself. Setting the Context: Are you content in your context The Incremental Chain of Being Does Linguistics Need (Weak) Emergence Contextual Meaning and Theory Dependence Scientific Naturalism and Its Faults Scientific Emergentism and the Mutualist Revolution: A New Guiding Picture of Nature New Methodologies and New Models Causation in Buddhist Philosophy A realistic view of causation in the real world Where Is the Top and What Might Go Down Multiplicity Logical Openness Incompleteness and Quasi ness as Peculiar Non reductionist Properties of Complexity Micro latency Holism and Emergence Enactive Realism. A first look at a new theoretical synthesis Holism and pseudoholism Explanatory Emergence Metaphysical Emergence and the Metaphysical Primacy of Physics Contextual Emergence: Constituents Context and Meaning Mathematics Theoretical Physics: Contents Contexts and Basics of Contextuality Content Context and Naturalism in Mathematics Shared mathematical content in the context of complex systems United but not Uniform: Our Fecund Universe Probability Typicality and Emergence in Statistical Mechanics The metal: a model for modern physics Spacetime Emergence: Collapsing the Distinction Between Content and Context Topological quantum field theory and the emergence of physical space time from geometry: new insights into the interactions between geometry and physics The Electron And The Cosmos: From The Universe Of Fragmented Objects To The Particle world Leonardo Chiatti “A novel feature of atomicity in the laws of nature”: Quantum theory against reductionism Geometric And Exotic Contextuality In Quantum Reality Quantum identity content and context: from classical to non classical logic Contextual Probability in Quantum Physics Cognition Psychology Social Science and Artificial Intelligence Cognitive Science Computer Science: Nothing will come of Everything: Software Towers and Quantum Towers The Quantum like Behavior of Neural Networks Concepts Experts and Deep Learning A route to intelligence: oversimplify and self monitor Context is King: Contextual Emergence in Network Neuroscience Cognitive Science and Psychology From Electrons to Elephants: Context and Consciousness When two levels collide Biology: Some remarks on epigenetics and causality in the biological world Can agency be reduced to molecules The Epistemology of Life: Understanding living beings according to a relational ontology Holism and Reductionism in the illness disease debate About Context Fiction and Schizophrenia Humanities and Social Sciences: On the Explanation of Social and Societal Facts On the irreversible journey of matter life and human culture Architecture and Big Data: From Scale to Capacity Being or Tea Art is Critical.