I think you’re missing the point. To say, “life emerges from the activities of cells” or that “intelligence emerges from non-intelligence” is not simply to make empty statements devoid of meaning. The first is an assertions that “life” isn’t a *thing* which one should seek to find somewhere, materially, in nature—like some yet-to-be-cataloged bird of paradise. It’s a property of complex cellular processes. There are people who think that brain contains a “core self,” as if it were a kind of organ. It might be so obvious to you that it’s not, that you find the word emergent here to be redundant. But to say that “the self, or intelligence, is an emergent property of our brain activity” is to make it clear that it emerges as a kind of byproduct and is not a specific *thing* or essence. There are other ideas about intelligence going around. Not everyone agrees or understands how intelligence can emerge from the activities of non-intelligent “agents” or resources. So the notion of “emergence”, while not explaining the details, can at least assert a stance on the matter.
So I don’t see these terms as totally meaningless (nor “fun”to strip out of our language.)
I think you’re missing the point. To say, “life emerges from the activities of cells” or that “intelligence emerges from non-intelligence” is not simply to make empty statements devoid of meaning. The first is an assertions that “life” isn’t a *thing* which one should seek to find somewhere, materially, in nature—like some yet-to-be-cataloged bird of paradise. It’s a property of complex cellular processes. There are people who think that brain contains a “core self,” as if it were a kind of organ. It might be so obvious to you that it’s not, that you find the word emergent here to be redundant. But to say that “the self, or intelligence, is an emergent property of our brain activity” is to make it clear that it emerges as a kind of byproduct and is not a specific *thing* or essence. There are other ideas about intelligence going around. Not everyone agrees or understands how intelligence can emerge from the activities of non-intelligent “agents” or resources. So the notion of “emergence”, while not explaining the details, can at least assert a stance on the matter.
So I don’t see these terms as totally meaningless (nor “fun”to strip out of our language.)