Levels of organization

1. An assembly of things of a definite kind (e.g. a collection of systems characterized by a definite set of properties and laws, and such that it belongs to an evolutionary line, though not necessarily to a line of biological descent). Some of the characteristics which emerge at a new level are the exclusive property of the level in question, although new means later (rather than superior) in the course of a process leading from pre-existing levels. A level structure does not necessarily qualify as a hierarchy, since the concept of domination, essential to hierarchy, is absent from the idea of level, as is the concept of superiority.

2. Grades of being ordered, not in arbitrary ways but in one or more evolutionary series.

3. The uniformities found among integrative levels include:

(a) The structure of integrative levels rests on a physical foundation. The lowest level of scientific observation would appear to be the mechanics of particles.

(b) Each level organizes the level below it plus one or more emergent qualities (or unpredictable novelties). The levels are therefore cumulative upwards, and the emergence of qualities marks the degree of complexity of the conditions prevailing at a given level, as well as giving to that level its relative autonomy.

(c) The mechanism of an organization is found at the level below, its purpose at the level above.

(d) Knowledge of the lower level infers an understanding of matters on the higher level; however, qualities emerging on the higher level have no direct reference to the lower-level organization.

(e) The higher the level, the greater its variety of characteristics, but the smaller its population.

(f) The higher level cannot be reduced to the lower, since each level has its own characteristic structure and emergent qualities.

(g) An organization at any level is a distortion of the level below, the higher-level organization representing the figure which emerges from the previously organized ground.

(h) A disturbance introduced into an organization at any one level reverberates at all the levels it covers. The extent and severity of such disturbances are likely to be proportional to the degree of integration of that organization.

(i) Every organization, at whatever level it exists, has some sensitivity and responds in kind.