Thank you for asking! My phrasing may not have been the most clear.
My background is in humanities and health care. I currently work in eldercare. Computers have always been a major interest of mine since an early age, but professionally I have taken another route. I have a general curiosity about systems and theories of different kinds. I do have an education in the basic scientific approach, something I acquired while studying to become a teacher. Soft sciences have often come more easily to me. I lack the benefits of a disciplined study of computer science, something I am sure affects my approach.
My use of the word 'emergent' was inspired by systems theory [0], where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The parts of a system create emergent behaviors or phenomena. For example: A football team consists of several players, and the strategy of the teamwork is an emergent phenomenon. Similarly, my thought was that when functions are spread out into several modules, they may create unexpected emergent complexity. Without being able to give a concrete example off the top of my head, I think I have struggled with bugs born out of such complexity.
My thought was that the "syntactical encapsulation" (the actual code we write) may not serve the "conceptual class" (the idea we have). We may have a good concept, but we distribute its functionality among too many classes.
Curious, what is your background and day to day work to be able to express your thinking in these terms?