Abstract
I argue that goals emerge when we pass from a microscopic to a macroscopic description of the world. I claim that this emergence is no mystical process in which the microscopic laws of nature suddenly cease to be valid when a certain number of atoms or molecules is gathered in one place. Instead I explain, that macroscopic theories are necessary in order to describe the world on a larger scale, and that these theories, even when they display qualitatively new features, are fully compatible with microscopic descriptions from which the very same features are absent. I explore under which conditions goal-oriented behavior of macroscopic entities can emerge from goal-free microscopic dynamics. I conclude that under these circumstances mindless mathematical laws can give rise to aims and intention.
Stefan Keppeler