"Call them emergent properties " stresses the point you wish because the other view considers a complex or duality: put all the pieces together and you still don't have life because nothing new comes into existence when you do that--you need a governing principle which is immaterial and that principle would continue to exist after the dissolution of the constituent material parts.
But the distinction between life and non-life pertains to both views.
If there are emergent properties then you have something new.