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| Summary | The study of complexity has emerged out of a number of analytical trends in the physical and biological sciences in the last century, principally in the fields of computing and computer modelling, cybernetics, dynamical system theory (a branch of classical mechanics which studies the properties and interactions of many-bodied point mass systems), 'organismic' biology (an approach to theoretical biology emphasizing an analytic approach to vitalistic concepts such as teleology) and thermodynamics. In an attempt to provide modern scientific foundations for vitalistic notions such as teleological behaviour, analytic biologists such as Cannon and Sommerhoff proposed analytic or behavioural analyses and definitions of biological notions. Once given a behavioural grounding, these models were able to migrate out of biology, to account for analogical features of non-biological systems: first to the study of machines and control systems in cybernetics, and thence to a wide range of physical and social processes, aided by developments in non-linear dynamics such as dynamical systems theory, the emergence of the statistical sciences, and the development of modern computer modelling. Somewhat surprisingly, there has been little theoretical interaction between complexity theory and continuum mechanics, a part of classical mechanics that also deals with non-linear phenomena (such as elastic collisions or fluid flow), perhaps because complexity theory standardly deals with systems of discrete elements, and not homogenous continua. A consequence is that non-linearity may not be a sufficient characterization of complexity. ‘Complexity’ (a term that can describe behaviour and function equally well as structure) has since become a trans-disciplinary umbrella term that is intended to denote that feature of entities which is claimed to be responsible or to account for such characteristics, in both living and non-living systems. Complexity, as a concept, thereby provides not only analysis, but also (and perhaps more crucially, yet contentiously) a uniform explanation for the structure and behaviour of a very extensive range of phenomena. Philosophical problems associated with complexity include clarifying the meanings of various concepts associated with complexity, such as emergence, non-linearity, feedback, adaptation, and self-organization, and the extent to which these terms can be given scientific meaning, that is, the extent to which these terms can be meaningfully used in the physical sciences themselves. The study of complexity also naturally intersects with more traditional problem areas in the philosophy of the sciences, such as the study of reductionism, modelling, supervenience, functionalism, and causality; however the focus of contemporary philosophy of complexity has largely tended towards the examination of (or in many cases, an attempt at the legitimization of) a scientific grounding of a particular set of approaches to these problem areas. Much of this focus is surely due to the fact that the study of complexity in the twentieth century has largely been driven by scientific practitioners themselves, and not by philosophers or philosophers of science. As such, contemporary complexity theory also makes assumptions about the relationship between scientific and philosophical theories, leading to one of its central problems: its essential ambiguity. Is complexity science a specific branch of physical science (for example, the study of 'complex adaptive systems'); a study of a widespread trans-disciplinary scientific phenomenon (leading to the study of, for example, various broad 'measures of complexity', not to speak of complexity in other divisions of science, including biological and social complexity); or even a general (and allegedly paradigmatic) approach to science itself (the source of many popularizations, and in some cases works bordering on pseudo-science)? This ambiguity (which is reflected in the bibliography) opens up further avenues for exploration, and has implications for the manner in which philosophers should attempt to approach the subject. |
| Key works | Weaver 1948, Simon 1962, and Ashby 1962 are classic early works, generalizing concepts from cybernetics. Buckley 1968 is an early application to sociology and is likely the origin of the concept of a 'Complex Adaptive System', later explored in Holland 1992. Prigogine 1984 explores a model of complexity based on ideas from thermodynamics; Various proposed measures of complexity are explored in Bennett 1992, Lloyd & Pagels 1988 and Gell-Mann 1995. Kauffman 1969 and Bak 1996 are the origins of the influential models of Random Boolean Networks and Self-Organized Criticality, respectively. |
| Introductions | A comprehensive introduction to many of the technical and philosophical issues of complexity can be found in Ladyman et al 2013. Book-length introductions to the diverse areas of research in complexity are Mitchell 2009 and Hooker 2011. Historical context is provided in Abraham 2011 and Francois 1999, as well as Keller 2008 and Keller 2009. There is a paucity of discussion of the subject in a manner that would be familiar to academic philosophers; in addition to Ladyman et al 2013, readers can consult Phelan 2001, Frigg 2003, Poser 2007, Taborsky 2014, and Zuchowski 2018. |
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- Artificial Life (288)
- Chaos (334)
- Emergence (814 | 524)
- Nonlinear Dynamics (172)
- Systems Theory (299)
- Complex Systems, Misc (64)
Contents
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- Productive Indeterminacy: Quantum Metaphors for Constitutive Social Phenomena.Demetrios Chiuratto Agourakis - manuscriptSocial theory inherits from physics an assumption so pervasive it escapes notice: that beliefs exist before we ask about them, that preferences precede their expression, that the survey samples what was already there. This essay argues otherwise—and the stakes are not merely philosophical. For phenomena where indeterminacy is ontological rather than epistemic, classical assumptions do not simplify; they distort. Drawing on second-order cybernetics and the quantum cognition program—empirical work, not speculation—I propose that concepts from quantum theory illuminate constitutive social phenomena (...)
- Political Hysteresis: A Formal Heuristic for Institutional Conductivity (K) and Adaptive Velocity (A).Yavuz Dağ - manuscript - Translated by Yavuz Dağ.Traditional historiography often analyzes regime stability through qualitative narratives, leading to retrospective descriptions rather than predictive mechanics. This paper proposes a formal systems-theoretic framework aligned with the goals of Cliodynamics, based on the Ontogenetic Principle of Cultural Dynamics (Dağ, 2026a). We model political evolution as a discrete-time optimization problem under constraints using the equation Ct+1 = e ^−KCt + (1 − e ^−K)A⃗. By defining Institutional Conductivity (K) and Adaptive Targets (A⃗) as operational variables, we analyze three distinct system states: (...)
- The Role of Philosophy as a Guide in Complex Scientific and Technological Processes.Alfred Driessen - manuscriptProbably the most challenging issue in science and advanced technology is the ever increasing complexity. The term complexity refers to the experience that the complex whole is more than the sum of the parts. Emergence of new properties is observed at all levels, from relatively simple physical systems up to high-end evolution in biology or state-of-the-art microprocessors in technology. In this study an effort is made to arrive at an understanding of the underlying ontological basis in terms of the classical (...)
- Universal Complexity in Action: Active Condensed Matter, Integral Medicine, Causal Economics and Sustainable Governance.Andrei P. Kirilyuk - manuscriptWe review the recently proposed universal concept of dynamic complexity and its new mathematics based on the unreduced interaction problem solution. We then consider its progress-bringing applications at various levels of complex world dynamics, including complex-dynamical nanometal physics and living condensed matter, unreduced nanobiosystem dynamics and the integral medicine concept, causally complete management of complex economical and social dynamics, and the ensuing concept of truly sustainable world governance.
- Self-Organization, Emergence, and Constraint in Complex Natural Systems.Jon Lawhead - manuscriptContemporary complexity theory has been instrumental in providing novel rigorous definitions for some classic philosophical concepts, including emergence. In an attempt to provide an account of emergence that is consistent with complexity and dynamical systems theory, several authors have turned to the notion of constraints on state transitions. Drawing on complexity theory directly, this paper builds on those accounts, further developing the constraint-based interpretation of emergence and arguing that such accounts recover many of the features of more traditional accounts. We (...)
- Trace Source Rational Equivalency Theory (TSRET).Armando Soto - manuscriptTSRET v0.1 presents a connectivity-centered account of how systems cross from reactive, contact-bound control to absence-capable informational control. Connectivity propagates deficits across coupled dependents, generating shared closure pressure (“need factors”) that forces closure under partial absence. Repeated closure success is retained and compressed into re-instantiable handles (“tokens”). When token re-instantiation becomes the dominant control tendency (the tokenization threshold), substitution becomes possible. The central claim is the Rational Equivalent (RE) threshold: a trace-sourced, materially unfulfillable (in-the-moment) deficit specification that can stand for (...)
- Proteins as adaptive complex systems.Hans Frauenfelder - forthcoming - Complexity.
- The rise of the technobionts: toward a new ontology to understand current planetary crisis.Gustavo Magallanes Guijón & O. López-Corona - forthcoming - Researchers.One.Inhere we expand the concept of Holobiont to incorporate niche construction theory in order to increase our understanding of the current planetary crisis. By this, we propose a new ontology, the Ecobiont, as the basic evolutionary unit of analysis. We make the case of Homo Sapiens organized around modern cities (technobionts) as a different Ecobiont from classical Homo Sapiens (i.e. Hunter- gatherers Homo Sapiens). We consider that Ecobiont ontology helps to make visible the coupling of Homo Sapiens with other biological (...)
- Dr. McManus LEAD 201 October 4, 2011 Complexity Theory for a Complex and Chaotic World.Rachel Hartong - forthcoming - Complexity.Remove from this listExport citation
Bookmark - Cellular automata (abstract and discussion): complex nonadaptive systems.Erica Jen - forthcoming - Complexity.
- Whispers from Carnot: The origins of order and principles of adaptation in complex nonequilibrium systems.Stuart A. Kauffman - forthcoming - Complexity.
- Structural Modeling Error and the System Individuation Problem.Jon Lawhead - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.Recent work by Frigg et. al. and Mayo-Wilson have called attention to a particular sort of error associated with attempts to model certain complex systems: structural modeling error. The assessment of the degree of SME in a model presupposes agreement between modelers about the best way to individuate natural systems, an agreement which can be more problematic than it appears. This problem, which we dub “the system individuation problem” arises in many of the same contexts as SME, and the two (...)
- Uncertainty, Complexity, and Universal Basic Income: The Robust Implementation of the Right to Social Security.Otto Lehto - forthcoming - In Elena Pribytkova, In Search for a Social Minimum: Human Dignity, Poverty, and Human Rights. Cham: Springer.The complexity approach to political economy suggests that radical uncertainty is a necessary feature of a complex and evolving socioeconomic landscape. Radical uncertainty raises various adaptive challenges that are likely to escalate in the coming decades under the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” It jeopardizes the wellbeing of ordinary citizens, whose welfare prospects, job opportunities, and income stream are rendered insecure. It also renders precarious the robust implementation of universal human rights, including the right to social security. In fact, it will be (...)
- Evolution, Complexity, and Intelligence: The Methodological Foundations of Evolutionary Liberalism.Otto Lehto - forthcoming - Constitutional Political Economy.In evolutionary liberalism, exemplified by the Hayekian-Gaussian Open Society, a) liberal institutions and norms are explained (in part or wholly) with the help of evolutionary explanations; and b) such evolutionary explanations are assumed to carry normative weight in justifying liberalism. This paper argues that evolutionary liberalism is a methodologically and normatively appealing version of liberalism. The beneficial aspects of the Open Society can be cashed out, not merely in terms of complex adaptation, but also in terms of (collective) intelligence. The (...)
- Complexity Sciences: A scientific platform.Fabrizio Li Vigni - forthcoming - Science and Technology Studies.Social scientists have proposed several concepts to give account of the way scientific life organizes. By studying “complexity sciences”–established in the mid-1980s by the “Santa Fe Institute” in New Mexico (USA)–, the present article addresses to interdisciplinary studies and emergent domains literature by proposing a new concept to describe this domain. Drawing from Bourdieusian sociology of science and STS, a “scientific platform” is defined as a meeting point between different specialties, which, on the basis of a flexible common ground, pursue (...)
- The Fragile World Hypothesis: Complexity, Fragility, and Systemic Existential Risk.David Manheim - forthcoming - Futures.The possibility of social and technological collapse has been the focus of science fiction tropes for decades, but more recent focus has been on specific sources of existential and global catastrophic risk. Because these scenarios are simple to understand and envision, they receive more attention than risks due to complex interplay of failures, or risks that cannot be clearly specified. In this paper, we discuss the possibility that complexity of a certain type leads to fragility which can function as a (...)
- The science of muddling through revisited.Ronald J. Scott Jr - forthcoming - Emergence: Complexity and Organization.
- Logico-philosophical summary of Ontology of Knowledge in 15 essential points iss.20260212.Jean-Louis Boucon - 2026 - Academia.In a pure probabilistic field (without space, time, or matter), the term <Probability of S> would be empty for lack of support. Now, due to its infinite combinatorics, this field necessarily resolves itself into nested structures of singular modes of order. A singularity S1 is defined as a self-reflexive core (P(S1|S1) = 1), probabilistically closed (Σ P(Si|S1) = 1). Then the conditional relation P(S1|S2) does not describe a link between given entities: it is postulated as primitive reality in which S1 (...)
- Global Regularity for Navier–Stokes on T³ via Bounded Vorticity–Response Functionals.Jeffrey Camlin - 2025 - Journal of Post-Biological Epistemics 1 (2):1-14.The incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on the three-torus T³ admit global weak solutions (Leray), but whether these solutions remain smooth for all time is open. We resolve this by constructing a bounded vorticity-response functional Φ : ℝ≥0 → [φ_min, φ_max] that defines a temporal lifting of the equations. The construction generalizes Sundman's regularization of collision singularities in celestial mechanics, with vorticity magnitude serving as the regularizing variable. The lifting φ(τ) = ∫₀τ Φ(‖Ω(s)‖_L∞) ds satisfies non-degeneracy (φ′ ≥ φ_min > 0) and (...)
- Institutional Diversity and Innovative Recombination.Nathan Goodman, Otto Lehto & Mikayla Novak - 2025 - European Economic Review 174 (May 2025):104998.In Explaining Technology, Koppl et al. (2023) argue that “recombination is the essential driver of technological evolution” (p. 3). Modelling combinatorial innovation as a self-propelling, “autocatalytic” process raises the question of what explanatory role, if any, is left for institutional analysis. Although the authors grant institutions only an auxiliary explanatory role, they hint at the functional importance of market institutions, trade networks, patent law, and entrepreneurship. Our paper argues that institutions matter because they crucially affect aggregate levels and rates of (...)
- Interstitial Dynamism in the Open Society.Otto Lehto & Kaveh Pourvand - 2025 - Constellations.This paper argues that the notion of interstitial transformation, whereby new social practices emerge within the gaps of existing orders and gain prominence, is crucial for understanding social change in a complex world. Our work builds on the contributions of two distinct scholarly groups who have explored social complexity. The first are emancipatory radicals who look to bottom-up interstitial change to achieve radical social change. The second is classical or “Open Society” liberals who wish to leverage interstitial complexity within civil (...)
- Um convite à Ética Informacional.João Antonio De Moraes & Rafael Rodrigues Testa - 2025 - In Carlos Cândido de Almeida & Mariana Vitti-Rodrigues, Estudos pluridisciplinares da informação: Ciência da Informação, ética e linguagem. São Paulo / Marília: Oficina Universitária / Cultura Acadêmica. pp. 213-240.O presente capítulo é um convite ao leitor e à leitora para adentrar às discussões atuais em Ética Informacional. Para tanto, estruturamos essa apresentação em duas partes: na primeira explicitamos o contexto e a fundamentação teórica a partir das quais têm sido estruturadas as bases desse novo ramo de investigação filosófica. Em seguida, dentre o grande número de problemas que compõem a agenda da Ética Informacional, selecionamos alguns que julgamos relevantes para a compreensão dos impactos da inserção de tecnologias digitais (...)Remove from this listExport citation Bookmark
- Lingüística y complejidad: Enfoques interdisciplinarios y transdisciplinarios de la fonética en la enseñanza de lenguas.Francisco Antonio Nocetti - 2025 - Revista Docencia Universitaria 6 (2):63-76.OBJETIVO: Analizar la relación entre la fonética y la enseñanza de segundas lenguas, mediante un enfoque del pensamiento complejo que considere las interacciones interdisciplinarias y transdisciplinarias en el aprendizaje de lenguas. MÉTODO: Se revisaron conceptos fundamentales de la fonética, la fonología y su integración en la enseñanza de segundas lenguas, incluyendo el uso de herramientas tecnológicas y técnicas de aprendizaje, como la repetición y la retroalimentación. Se trata de un estudio cualitativo basado en análisis documental de fuentes especializadas. RESULTADOS: Se (...)
- Global Artificial Intelligence (GAI): Specific Decisions.R. Pedraza - 2025 - Ruben Garcia Pedraza.Specific Decisional System offers a groundbreaking exploration into how artificial intelligence can make, adjust, and implement decisions with mathematical precision. Focused on the core logic of Artificial Research by Deduction, this book introduces readers to a structured, three-stage process that governs how intelligent systems validate decisions, transform them into actionable instructions, and evolve through self-correction. With real-world examples ranging from automated transport to banking systems, it reveals how AI can operate autonomously while adapting in real time to new priorities and (...)
- How the Reductionist Should Respond to the Multiscale Argument, and What This Tells Us About Levels.Alexander Franklin - 2024 - In Katie Robertson & Alastair Wilson, Levels of Explanation. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press. pp. 77-98.Recent literature has raised what I'll call the 'multiscale argument' against reduction (see e.g. Batterman (2013), Wilson (2017), Bursten (2018)). These authors observe that numerous successful scientific models appeal to features and properties from a wide range of spatial/temporal scales. This is taken to undermine views that the world is sharply divided into distinct levels, roughly corresponding to different scales, and that each higher level is reducible to the next lowest level. -/- While the multiscale argument does undermine a naive (...)
- Intellectual property, complex externalities, and the knowledge commons.Nathan Goodman & Otto Lehto - 2024 - Public Choice 201 (3-4):511-531.Intellectual property (IP) can internalize positive externalities associated with the creation and discovery of ideas, thereby increasing investment in efforts to create and discover ideas. However, IP law also causes negative externalities. Strict IP rights raise the transaction costs associated with consuming and building on existing ideas. This causes a tragedy of the anticommons, in which valuable resources are underused and underdeveloped. By disincentivizing creative projects that build on existing ideas, IP protection, even if it increases original innovation, can inadvertently (...)
- Intelligence. And what computers still can’t do.Jobst Landgrebe & Barry Smith - 2024 - Cosmos+Taxis 12 (5+6):104-114.We comment on the collection of papers inspired by our book Why Machines Will Never Rule the World published in volume 12 (5+6) of the journal Cosmos+Taxis. We summarize the arguments made by the contributors about what we say in the book, and then show where we disagree.
- Liberal Neutrality and the Paradox of the Open Future.Otto Lehto - 2024 - In Leon Hartmann, Sebastian Kaufmann, Bernhard Neumärker & Andreas Urs Sommers, Political Participation and Universal Basic Income: Narratives of the Future. Berlin: Lit Verlag. pp. 147-168.Liberal-minded basic income scholars often argue that UBI has two key properties that work together to justify it. Let us call these the freedom justification and the narrative justification. On the one hand, UBI is defended because it gives people more freedom to do what they want to do. (Stigler, 1946, Friedman, 1962; Van Parijs, 1995; Widerquist, 2013) They exhibit primary concern for the purely formal properties of the regime of liberal neutrality. On the other hand, many scholars, including many (...)
- Big Data Analytics and AI for Early Disease Detection Using Biomedical Signal Patterns.A. Manoj Prabaharan - 2024 - Big Data Analytics and Ai for Early Disease Detection Using Biomedical Signal Patterns 8 (1):1-7.The rapid advancements in healthcare technologies have resulted in an enormous increase in biomedical data, creating the need for innovative approaches to harness this information for early disease detection. Big Data Analytics (BDA) combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers unprecedented opportunities to analyze complex biomedical signal patterns and predict the onset of diseases at an early stage. The application of AI techniques like machine learning and deep learning in conjunction with BDA allows for the detection of subtle patterns in large (...)
- Complex Emergent Model of Language Acquisition (CEMLA).Mir H. S. Quadri - 2024 - The Lumeni Notebook Research.The Complex Emergent Model of Language Acquisition (CEMLA) offers a new perspective on how humans acquire language, drawing on principles from complexity theory to explain this dynamic, adaptive process. Moving beyond linear and reductionist models, CEMLA views language acquisition as a system of interconnected nodes, feedback loops, and emergent patterns, operating at the edge of chaos. This framework captures the fluidity and adaptivity of language learning, highlighting how understanding and fluency arise through self-organisation, phase transitions, and interaction with diverse linguistic (...)
- La fundamentación no es una medida adecuada de la complejidad física.Carlos Romero - 2024 - Revista de Humanidades de Valparaíso (25):91-111.Después de introducir el artículo (§1), repasaré los aspectos más generales y centrales de la literatura sobre la fundamentación (§2); esta tarea me parece valiosa ya que no existen revisiones generales y actualizadas en español sobre el tema. Después, argumentaré que la fundamentación no es una medida de complejidad física, y que, sin un vínculo necesario con la complejidad, quedan pocas razones para pensar que la fundamentación une a los diferentes estratos de la realidad física, que es una de las (...)
- Causally Complete Science for the Reason-Based Society.Andrei P. Kirilyuk - 2023 - Fqxi Essay Contest - Spring, 2023: How Could Science Be Different?.Modern fundamental science tends to avoid the principle of physical causality and realism, replacing it with heuristically postulated and separated mathematical constructions that impose their own rules before being adjusted to measurement results. While it is officially accepted as the single possible kind of rigorous knowledge, we argue that another, explicitly extended kind of science can provide the causally complete picture of reality avoiding the glaring gaps, growing problems and persisting stagnation of the artificially reduced knowledge paradigm. The logic of (...)
- Biolinguistics and biological systems: a complex systems analysis of language.Ryan Mark Nefdt - 2023 - Biology and Philosophy 38 (2):1-42.In their recent book, Ladyman and Wiesner (What is a complex system?, Yale University Press, 2020) delineate the bounds of the exciting interdisciplinary field of complexity science. In this work, they provide examples of generally accepted complex systems and common features which these possess to varying degrees. In this paper, I plan to extend their list to include the formal study of natural language, i.e. linguistics. In fact, I will argue that language exhibits many of the hallmarks of a complex (...)
- Lingüística y Complejidad: Enfoques interdisciplinarios en los estudios de fonética.F. A. Nocetti - 2023 - Dissertation, Multiversidad Mundo Real Edgar MorinLa presente investigación se inscribe en el campo del pensamiento complejo y tiene como propósito principal analizar la articulación interdisciplinaria y transdisciplinaria en el estudio de la lingüística y, en particular, de la fonética, integrando aportes provenientes de distintas áreas del conocimiento. El trabajo se fundamenta en una línea de investigación previa orientada al estudio de la complejidad, los sistemas complejos y la transdisciplina en lingüística, desarrollada en diversas publicaciones científicas, y la consolida en un proyecto unitario de carácter teórico (...)
- Working Toward Solutions in Fluid Dynamics and Astrophysics: What the Equations Don’t Say.Lydia Patton & Erik Curiel - 2023 - Cham: Springer Verlag.Systems of differential equations are used to describe, model, explain, and predict states of physical systems. Experimental and theoretical branches of physics including general relativity, climate science, and particle physics have differential equations at their center. Direct solutions to differential equations are not available in many domains, which spurs on the use of creative mathematics and simulated solutions.
- The Simple Solution to a Complex Problem.Ilexa Yardley - 2023 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Conservation of the Circle is the only dynamic in Nature, and, therefore, the simple solution to the complex problem called ‘reality.’ (Also known as 'identity.') Financial, technological, and, therefore, psychological.
- The Maximization of Chaos.Ilexa Yardley - 2023 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Understanding (physics, philosophy, and psychology as) a constant variable.
- The ultimate think tank: The rise of the Santa Fe Institute libertarian.Erik Baker - 2022 - History of the Human Sciences 35 (3-4):32-57.Why do corporations and wealthy philanthropists fund the human sciences? Examining the history of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), a private research institute founded in the early 1980s, this article shows that funders can find as much value in the social worlds of the sciences they sponsor as in their ideas. SFI became increasingly dependent on funding from corporations and libertarian business leaders in the 1990s and 2000s. At the same time, its intellectual work came to focus on the underlying (...)
- Complex Adaptation and Permissionless Innovation: An Evolutionary Approach to Universal Basic Income.Otto Lehto - 2022 - Dissertation, King's College LondonUniversal Basic Income (UBI) has been proposed as a potential way in which welfare states could be made more responsive to the ever-shifting evolutionary challenges of institutional adaptation in a dynamic environment. It has been proposed as a tool of “real freedom” (Van Parijs) and as a tool of making the welfare state more efficient. (Friedman) From the point of view of complexity theory and evolutionary economics, I argue that only a welfare state model that is “polycentrically” (Polanyi, Hayek) organized (...)
- Hayek at the Santa Fe Institute: Origins, Models, and Organization of the Cradle of Complexity Sciences.Fabrizio Li Vigni - 2022 - Centaurus 64 (2):443-481.Complexity sciences are one of the most mediatized scientific fields of the last 40 years. While this domain has attracted the attention of many philosophers of science, its normative views have not yet been the object of any systematic study. This article is a contribution to the thin social science literature about complexity sciences and proposes a contribution focused on an analysis of the origins, models, and organization of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), cradle of the field. The paper defends (...)
- White Hole Observation: An Experimental Result.Yang I. Pachankis - 2022 - International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology 7 (2):779-790.The article presents the empirical confirmation to the black hole and white hole juxtapose theory. The author based the experiment on the multi- mission multi-spectral space telescope data conducted remotely with the NASA Data Challenge and Harvard- Smithsonian Micro-Observatory. Since the loss of the original manuscript, the author reformulated the mathematics during the research. The observation developed a resonance observation technique that observed the white hole to the moon’s direction with the sun. The data reduction of the white hole and (...)
- Some Concepts of Space, Time, and Lengths in Simplified Chinese*: An Analytical Linguistics Approach.Yang Immanuel Pachankis - 2022 - International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology 7 (6):550-562.The article explains on the two-year experiment after the author’s finalization of dissertation. The thesis of the dissertation was hidden in the last chapter with analytical linguistics. It was done so with the fascist development of the Chinese Communist regime with neo- Nazi characteristics. Since numerous prior warnings on the political downshifts & coup d’état in China was willfully ignored by the university, the linguistic innovations in dissertation found a balance between multilateralism and outer space (security). The experiments were conducted (...)
- Permanent Crisis Management, the Rule of Law, and Universal Basic Income: A Polycentric Approach.Otto Lehto - 2021 - Cosmos+Taxis 9 (5+6):122-136.As a response to the COVID-19 crisis, governments have turned to various discretionary measures such as cash transfers to consumers and businesses with mixed results. Universal Basic Income (UBI) is back on the agenda as well. One of the main advantages of UBI, as scholars like F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and James M. Buchanan have argued, is that it does not depend upon competent and benevolent government discretion—which is often in short supply—but upon pre-established rules. This paper argues that the (...)
- Regimes of Evidence in Complexity Sciences.Fabrizio Li Vigni - 2021 - Perspectives on Science 29 (1):62-103.Since their inception in the 1980s, complexity sciences have been described as a revolutionary new domain of research. By describing some of the practices and assumptions of its representatives, the present article shows that this field is an association of subdisciplines laying on existing disciplinary footholds. The general question guiding us here is: On what basis do complexity scientists consider their inquiry methods and results as valuable? To answer it, I describe five “epistemic argumentative regimes,” namely the ways in which (...)
- Histoire et sociologie des sciences de la complexité.Fabrizio Li Vigni - 2021 - Paris: Éditions Matériologiques.
- The Key to Complexity: Simplicity.Ilexa Yardley - 2021 - Https://Medium.Com/the-Circular-Theory/.Complexity is dependent on the circular-linear relationship between an individual and a group, meaning we cannot use 'observation' to tell us what we need to know (to explain complexity).
- Creative Undecidability of Real-World Dynamics and the Emergent Time Hierarchy.Andrei P. Kirilyuk - 2020 - FQXi Essay Contest 2019-2020 “Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability”.The unreduced solution to the arbitrary interaction problem, absent in the standard theory framework, reveals many equally real and mutually incompatible system configurations, or "realizations". This is the essence of universal dynamic undecidability, or multivaluedness, and the ensuing causal randomness (unpredictability), non-computability, irreversible time flow (evolution, emergence), and dynamic complexity of every real system, object, or process. This creative undecidability of real-world dynamics provides causal explanations for "quantum mysteries", relativity postulates, cosmological problems, and the huge efficiency of high-complexity phenomena, such (...)
- Five anticipation communities in complex systems sciences.Fabrizio Li Vigni - 2020 - Futures 120.Complexity science has always been ambivalent about the possibility to foretell the future. On one side, one of its leitmotivs has aimed at highlighting the intrinsic uncertainty and unpredictability of ‘multi-scale,’ ‘non-linear’ and ‘evolutionary’ systems, because of their sensitivity to initial conditions. On the other side, some complex systems specialists tackle the future almost daily but show different attitudes toward it. For example, some scholars find easier to foretell the long run evolution of a system, but only in a coarse-grained (...)Remove from this listExport citation Bookmark
- The failed institutionalization of “complexity science”: A focus on the Santa Fe Institute’s legitimization strategy.Fabrizio Li Vigni - 2020 - History of Science 59 (3):344-369.“Complexity sciences” are an interdisciplinary and transnational domain of study that aims at modeling natural and social “complex systems.” They appeared in the 1970s in Europe and the United States, but were boosted in the mid-1980s by the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) under the formula of “science of complexity.” This small but famous institution is the object of the present article. According to their promissory ambitions and to the enthusiastic claims of some scientific journalists, complexity sciences were going to revolutionize (...)
- A Theory of Evolution as a Process of Unfolding.Agustin Ostachuk - 2020 - Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 16 (1):347-379.In this work I propose a theory of evolution as a process of unfolding. This theory is based on four logically concatenated principles. The principle of evolutionary order establishes that the more complex cannot be generated from the simpler. The principle of origin establishes that there must be a maximum complexity that originates the others by logical deduction. Finally, the principle of unfolding and the principle of actualization guarantee the development of the evolutionary process from the simplest to the most (...)
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