Whole, Parts, Spirit

What distinguishes Sublation or Emergence from mere Association might be formulated by the principle 'The whole is greater than the sum of its parts'.  Thus, resistance to Atomism by either Dialectical Materialism or Emergent Evolution depends on the adequacy of the characterization of the surplus that elevates a Whole over the sum of its Parts.  Now, one traditional concept can help fill that gap--Spirit, but as immanent in that Multiplicity, not as a supervention from a transcendent realm.  In other words, it functions precisely as does the Dialectic in Dialectical Materialism.  Accordingly, the latter can be conceived not as eliminating Spirit, nor as reducing it to a phantasm, but as relocating it from its traditional position.