From Biology to Sociopolitics Conceptual Continuity in Complex Systems
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: Yale Univ Pr
- Publish date: 06/01/1998
Herrmann envisions the inanimate world, life, and human existence as systems of increasing complexity that represent physical, biological, and sociopolitical realities. These systems may be related by a common form of understanding, conceptual continuity, that is established when two entities share a common element or form an intermediary complex. Herrmann compares the different ways that physics and biology reach conceptual continuity. In the ideal systems of physics, he says, the general abstractions of theories lead to the establishment of conceptual continuity. Yet this is not true in complex biological or sociopolitical systems, where identification of highly specific systems components is required to establish conceptual continuity. The author offers a historical survey and numerous examples to illustrate the range and meaning of conceptual continuity, and he proposes the paradigm not as an exclusive alternative but as a complementary mode of understanding complex systems.
"Herrmann takes an important issue, complexity, and analyzes it extremely well from numerous angles -- historical, philosophical, and biological". -- Scott F. Gilbert, Swarthmore College
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