Classification of emergence and its relation to self‐organization

Abstract Emergence is a difficult concept to describe clearly. It has been characterized in the literature in a number of ways, none of which are easy to understand or describe clearly how other concepts in complex systems science are related to emergence. We provide a simple, clear description, and classification of emergence in terms of self‐organization. This provides a framework for understanding how concepts such as thermodynamic equilibrium, nonlinearity, and computability are related to emergence. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2008.