Origins, Time, and Complexity: A critical approach to complexity and self-organization PDF Download

Author: George V. Coyne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782830907438
Category : Knowledge, Theory of (Religion)
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: George V. Coyne
Publisher: Labor et Fides
ISBN: 9782830907421
Category : Knowledge, Theory of (Religion)
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Author: George V. Coyne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782830907421
Category : Knowledge, Theory of (Religion)
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Lawrence W. Fagg
Publisher: McGill Studies in Religion
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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"This lucid and wide-ranging study sets out to reconcile the objective and subjective perspectives in the investigation of the phenomenon of time. [Lawrence W. Fagg] . . . explores the wondrous subtleties of time that modern physics continues to reveal, but complements them with the rich insights of the spiritual perspectives on time that the world's major religions have to offer."--Helga Nowotny, Former President, International Society for the Study of Time

Author: Vincent Vesterby
Publisher: Exploring Complexity
ISBN: 9780981703206
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Vesterby discusses ways emergence, self-organization, and cause come into existence. Understanding development, emergence, self-organization, and cause provides the opportunity to become a modern generalist.

Author: A. Driessen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401154287
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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On January 22, 1990, the late John Bell held at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics), Geneva a seminar organized by the Center of Quantum Philosophy, that at this time was an association of scientists interested in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this seminar Bell presented once again his famous theorem. Thereafter a discussion took place in which not only physical but also highly speculative epistemological and philosophical questions were vividly debated. The list of topics included: assumption of free will in Bell's theorem, the understanding of mind, the relationship between the mathematical and the physical world, the existence of unobservable causes and the limits of human knowledge in mathematics and physics. Encouraged by this stimulating discussion some of the participants decided to found an Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (lIS) to promote philosoph ical and interdisciplinary reflection on the advances of science. Meanwhile the lIS has associated its activities with the Swiss foundation, Fondation du Leman, and the Dutch foundation, Stichting Instudo, registered in Geneva and Amsterdam, respectively. With its activities the lIS intends to strengthen the unity between the professional activities in science and the reflection on fun damental philosophical questions. In addition the interdisciplinary approach is expected to give a contribution to the progress of science and the socio economic development. At present three working groups are active within the lIS, i. e. : - the Center for Quantum Philosophy, - the Wealth Creation and Sustainable Development Group, - the Neural Science Group.

Author: Paul Cilliers
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134743297
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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In Complexity and Postmodernism, Paul Cilliers explores the idea of complexity in the light of contemporary perspectives from philosophy and science. Cilliers offers us a unique approach to understanding complexity and computational theory by integrating postmodern theory (like that of Derrida and Lyotard) into his discussion. Complexity and Postmodernism is an exciting and an original book that should be read by anyone interested in gaining a fresh understanding of complexity, postmodernism and connectionism.

Author: Jean G. Boulton
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199565252
Category : Complexity
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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The book describes what it means to say the world is complex and explores what that means for managers, policy makers and individuals. The first part of the book is about the theory and ideas of complexity. This is explained in a way that is thorough but not mathematical. It compares differing approaches, and also provides a historical perspective, showing how such thinking has been around since the beginning of civilisation. It emphasises the difference between a complexity worldview and the dominant mechanical worldview that underpins much of current management practice. It defines the complexity worldview as recognising the world is interconnected, shaped by history and the particularities of context. The comparison of the differing approaches to modelling complexity is unique in its depth and accessibility. The second part of the book uses this lens of complexity to explore issues in the fields of management, strategy, economics, and international development. It also explores how to facilitate others to recognise the implications of adopting a complex rather than a mechanical worldview and suggests methods of research to explore systemic, path-dependent emergent aspects of situations. The authors of this book span both science and management, academia and practice, thus the explanations of science are authoritative and yet the examples of changing how you live and work in the world are real and accessible. The aim of the book is to bring alive what complexity is all about and to illustrate the importance of loosening the grip of a modernist worldview with its hope for prediction, certainty and control.

Author: Stuart Kauffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019984030X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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A major scientific revolution has begun, a new paradigm that rivals Darwin's theory in importance. At its heart is the discovery of the order that lies deep within the most complex of systems, from the origin of life, to the workings of giant corporations, to the rise and fall of great civilizations. And more than anyone else, this revolution is the work of one man, Stuart Kauffman, a MacArthur Fellow and visionary pioneer of the new science of complexity. Now, in At Home in the Universe, Kauffman brilliantly weaves together the excitement of intellectual discovery and a fertile mix of insights to give the general reader a fascinating look at this new science--and at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos. We all know of instances of spontaneous order in nature--an oil droplet in water forms a sphere, snowflakes have a six-fold symmetry. What we are only now discovering, Kauffman says, is that the range of spontaneous order is enormously greater than we had supposed. Indeed, self-organization is a great undiscovered principle of nature. But how does this spontaneous order arise? Kauffman contends that complexity itself triggers self-organization, or what he calls "order for free," that if enough different molecules pass a certain threshold of complexity, they begin to self-organize into a new entity--a living cell. Kauffman uses the analogy of a thousand buttons on a rug--join two buttons randomly with thread, then another two, and so on. At first, you have isolated pairs; later, small clusters; but suddenly at around the 500th repetition, a remarkable transformation occurs--much like the phase transition when water abruptly turns to ice--and the buttons link up in one giant network. Likewise, life may have originated when the mix of different molecules in the primordial soup passed a certain level of complexity and self-organized into living entities (if so, then life is not a highly improbable chance event, but almost inevitable). Kauffman uses the basic insight of "order for free" to illuminate a staggering range of phenomena. We see how a single-celled embryo can grow to a highly complex organism with over two hundred different cell types. We learn how the science of complexity extends Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection: that self-organization, selection, and chance are the engines of the biosphere. And we gain insights into biotechnology, the stunning magic of the new frontier of genetic engineering--generating trillions of novel molecules to find new drugs, vaccines, enzymes, biosensors, and more. Indeed, Kauffman shows that ecosystems, economic systems, and even cultural systems may all evolve according to similar general laws, that tissues and terra cotta evolve in similar ways. And finally, there is a profoundly spiritual element to Kauffman's thought. If, as he argues, life were bound to arise, not as an incalculably improbable accident, but as an expected fulfillment of the natural order, then we truly are at home in the universe. Kauffman's earlier volume, The Origins of Order, written for specialists, received lavish praise. Stephen Jay Gould called it "a landmark and a classic." And Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson wrote that "there are few people in this world who ever ask the right questions of science, and they are the ones who affect its future most profoundly. Stuart Kauffman is one of these." In At Home in the Universe, this visionary thinker takes you along as he explores new insights into the nature of life.

Author: James Ladyman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300251106
Category : Computational complexity
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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A clear, concise introduction to the quickly growing field of complexity science that explains its conceptual and mathematical foundations What is a complex system? Although "complexity science" is used to understand phenomena as diverse as the behavior of honeybees, the economic markets, the human brain, and the climate, there is no agreement about its foundations. In this introduction for students, academics, and general readers, philosopher of science James Ladyman and physicist Karoline Wiesner develop an account of complexity that brings the different concepts and mathematical measures applied to complex systems into a single framework. They introduce the different features of complex systems, discuss different conceptions of complexity, and develop their own account. They explain why complexity science is so important in today's world.