creators_name: Gershenson, Carlos creators_name: Heylighen, Francis editors_name: Richardson, Kurt type: bookchapter datestamp: 2004-03-04 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:28 metadata_visibility: show title: How can we think the complex? ispublished: unpub subjects: phil-sci full_text_status: public keywords: complexity, philosophy, causality, emergence abstract: In this chapter we want to provide philosophical tools for understanding and reasoning about complex systems. Classical thinking, which is taught at most schools and universities, has several problems for coping with complexity. We review classical thinking and its drawbacks when dealing with complexity, for then presenting ways of thinking which allow the better understanding of complex systems. Examples illustrate the ideas presented. This chapter does not deal with specific tools and techniques for managing complex systems, but we try to bring forth ideas that facilitate the thinking and speaking about complex systems. date: 2004 date_type: published publication: Managing the Complex Volume One: Philosophy, Theory and Application publisher: Information Age Publishers refereed: FALSE referencetext: Anderson, P. W. (1972). More is different. Science 177 (4047):393-396. Ashby, W. R. (1962). Principles of the Self-organizing System. In von Foerster, H. and G. W. Zopf, Jr. (Eds.), Principles of Self-organization. Pergamon Press, pp. 255-278. Bar-Yam, Y. (1997). Dynamics of Complex Systems. Addison-Wesley. http://necsi.org/publications/dcs Beer, S. (1966). Decision and Control: The Meaning of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Chen, G., and X. H. Yu (2003) (eds.). Chaos Control: Theory and Applications. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, 292. Springer Verlag. Gershenson, C. (2002a). Complex Philosophy. Proceedings of the 1st Biennial Seminar on Philosophical, Methodological & Epistemological Implications of Complexity Theory. La Habana, Cuba. Also in InterJournal of Complex Systems, 544. http://arXiv.org/abs/nlin.AO/0109001 Gershenson, C. (2002b). Classification of Random Boolean Networks In Standish, R. K., M. A. Bedau, and H. A. Abbass (eds.) Artificial Life VIII: Proceedings of the Eight International Conference on Artificial Life. pp. 1-8. MIT Press. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.CC/0208001 Gershenson, C. and F. Heylighen (2003). When Can we Call a System Self-organizing? In Banzhaf, W, T. Christaller, P. Dittrich, J. T. Kim, and J. Ziegler, Advances in Artificial Life, 7th European Conference, ECAL 2003, Dortmund, Germany, pp. 606-614. LNAI 2801. Springer. http://arxiv.org/abs/nlin.AO/0303020 Gershenson, C., J. Broekaert, and D. Aerts (2003). Contextual Random Boolean Networks. In Banzhaf, W, T. Christaller, P. Dittrich, J. T. Kim, and J. Ziegler, Advances in Artificial Life, 7th European Conference, ECAL 2003, Dortmund, Germany, pp. 615-624. LNAI 2801. Springer. http://arxiv.org/abs/nlin.AO/0303021 Heylighen, F. (1989) Causality as Distinction Conservation: a theory of predictability, reversibility and time order, Cybernetics and Systems 20, p. 361-384. Heylighen, F. (2003). The Science of Self-organization and Adaptivity, in: Knowledge Management, Organizational Intelligence and Learning, and Complexity, in: The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, EOLSS Publishers Co. Ltd. Heylighen, F. and C. Joslyn (2001). Cybernetics and Second Order Cybernetics, in: R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Physical Science & Technology, Vol. 4 (3rd ed.), Academic Press, pp. 155-170. Heylighen, F. and C. Gershenson (2003). The Meaning of Self-organization in Computing. IEEE Intelligent Systems, section Trends & Controversies - Self-organization and Information Systems, July/August 2003, pp. 72-75. Maturana, H. R. and F. J. Varela (1987). The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Shambhala. Rosen, R. (1985). Anticipatory Systems. Pergamon. Shalizi, C. R. (2001). Causal Architecture, Complexity and Self-Organization in Time Series and Cellular Automata. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Wisconsin at Madison. ten Haaf W., H. Bikker, D.J. Adriaanse (2002) Fundamentals of Business Engineering and Management, A Systems Approach to People and Organisations, Delft University Press. citation: Gershenson, Carlos and Heylighen, Francis (2004) How can we think the complex? [Book Chapter] (Unpublished) document_url: http://cogprints.org/3439/1/ThinkingComplex.pdf