I think there was a big intuitive glimpse of this in dialectical materialism (but not on the stalinist "diamat" flavor). "Levels" of reality emerge were each on

I think there was a big intuitive glimpse of this in dialectical materialism (but not on the stalinist "diamat" flavor). "Levels" of reality emerge were each one has his own emergent "laws", there are intertwined mutual influence between "levels", phase transitions are emphasized, relationships are more important than objects, objects are always "contradictory" (always divisible and in flux) and really relationships in disguise, all "categories" we made in our mind as always transitional and imperfect, etc.