The problem is when people use the label “emergence” as a semantic stop sign, ending attempts at further explanation.
But there is nothing about “emergence” that makes it uniquely misusable that way.
What someone who says intelligence is an emergent property might mean is that there is not one “weird trick” to it. That is a reasonable thing to assert, even if it is not an explanation. It also not an explanation to say (only) that intelligence is reductionistic, computational,etc. There is a reductionistic style of explanation, but “is reductionistic” is not an explanation.
There might be a problem that some concepts are used as semantic stop signs, but that problem is not restricted to “emergence”. There might be a problem that emergence is not applicable to our universe, but that is not a problem with the concept of emergence: one has to at least consider possible ways the universe might be in order to rule out the incorrect ones. There might be a problem with seeking emergentist explanations after they have been definitevely ruled out … but there is still ongoing debate about that.
But there is nothing about “emergence” that makes it uniquely misusable that way.
What someone who says intelligence is an emergent property might mean is that there is not one “weird trick” to it. That is a reasonable thing to assert, even if it is not an explanation. It also not an explanation to say (only) that intelligence is reductionistic, computational,etc. There is a reductionistic style of explanation, but “is reductionistic” is not an explanation.
There might be a problem that some concepts are used as semantic stop signs, but that problem is not restricted to “emergence”. There might be a problem that emergence is not applicable to our universe, but that is not a problem with the concept of emergence: one has to at least consider possible ways the universe might be in order to rule out the incorrect ones. There might be a problem with seeking emergentist explanations after they have been definitevely ruled out … but there is still ongoing debate about that.