This chapter explains the concept of synergy and its role in the evolution of complex systems. It describes many different kinds of synergy in the natural world and presents the case for the synergism hypothesis. This chapter states that Holistic Darwinism encourages a multileveled, multidisciplinary research and theory that is free from the intellectual shackles of nineteenth-century Newtonian physics. The synergy concept provides a framework for integrating the research in various disciplines that may be relevant for understanding the broader causal role of cooperative phenomena in nature...

This chapter explains the concept of synergy and its role in the evolution of complex systems. It describes many different kinds of synergy in the natural world and presents the case for the synergism hypothesis. This chapter states that Holistic Darwinism encourages a multileveled, multidisciplinary research and theory that is free from the intellectual shackles of nineteenth-century Newtonian physics. The synergy concept provides a framework for integrating the research in various disciplines that may be relevant for understanding the broader causal role of cooperative phenomena in nature and evolution.