Spencer Heath Archive

Item 836

Random taping by Spencer MacCallum from conversation with Heath, MacCallum advocating a sub-title for Citadel, Market & Altar and suggesting Emergent or Emerging Society.

January 7, 1955

EMERGENT VERSUS EMERGING

The distinction between evolution and development, between the forming of a new type or pattern of organization and the growth or elaboration of a pre-existing type, is indicated in the two words, evolution and development. Evolution, particularly emergent evolution, means not only the emergence of a new structural type but also of a new functional capacity. (The Webster definition of emergent is a subjective one — what is unexpected to one person may not be to another — “appearing as something novel or unpredictable in the course of an evolution.”)