Foreword and Acknowledgements

This book is the result of a long project beginning in 2002. A new version of the French edition, first published in 2016, appeared in 2023.

Many people have helped me to clarify my ideas about the place of the mind in nature and about the concepts of reduction, emergence, and disposition on which my analysis is based. Of those who helped me to improve my arguments, I would like to mention François Athané, Alexander Bird, Tim Crane, Javier Cumpa, Alexandre Guay, Paul Noordhof, Robert Kirk, Georges Jobert, Alex Manafu, Thomas Pradeu, and Jürgen Schröder as well as my colleagues in the philosophy departments of Université Paris X-Nanterre, Université Pierre Mendès-France in Grenoble, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut Jean Nicod, Institut d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques, and Centre d’histoire des philosophies modernes de la Sorbonne. I am much indebted to Reinaldo Bernal Velasquez, who read a version of the entire manuscript and provided me with numerous critical comments; to Etienne Ligout, Yanis Pianko, and Vincent Ardourel for their generous advice concerning physics; and to Duncan Lee and Dallas Harrison, who helped me to improve the English version.

I would like to thank the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS — Centre national de la recherche scientifique) for funding my two-year research stay at Institut Jean Nicod from 2002 to 2004; the French National Research Agency (ANR — Agence nationale de la recherche) for funding my research project “Metaphysics of Science” between 2012 and 2015; Durham University (UK) for funding the “Emergent Phenomena in Materials” project (2014–15) as part of the Durham Emergence Project; and Institut Universitaire de France for funding a partial research leave during the preparation of the manuscript.

I am grateful to David Teira for encouraging me to submit the book manuscript to BSPS Open and for his generous support. Warm thanks to Véronique Antomarchi for sharing everything.