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Levels of Being

This chapter articulates an egalitarian ontology of levels of composition and realization that provides a foundation for the rest of the book. I reject the widespread assumption that levels form an ontological hierarchy such that some levels are more fundamental than others. On the contrary, neither wholes nor their proper parts are more fundamental; neither higher-level properties nor lower-level properties are more fundamental. Instead, higher levels are just invariant aspects of lower levels. Whole objects are invariants over additions, subtractions, and rearrangements of some parts; higher-level properties are invariant aspects of their lower-level realizers. This egalitarian ontology solves the causal exclusion problem and does justice to the special sciences—including cognitive neuroscience.