Bergson, Complexity and Creative Emergence

by Kreps, David

• ISBN13: 9781137412195
• ISBN10: 1137412194
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-08-11
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This is a book about evolution – from a post-Darwinian perspective. It recounts the core ideas of one of the great French philosophers, Henri Bergson (1859-1941), and his rediscovery and legacy in the poststructuralist critical philosophies of the 1960s onwards. It explores the confluences of these approaches with the foundational ideas of complexity theory and complex adaptive systems in environmental biology. The failings in the development of systems theory, many of which complex systems theory overcomes, are retold; with Bergson, this book proposes, some of the rest may be overcome too. It asserts that Bergson's ideas can further our understanding of evolution, and of complex systems, and aid the work of scientists working in the field of ecological complexity.

Author Biography

David Kreps, following a career in theatre and arts management, became a critical philosopher of systems, aged 40, with an MA Cultural Theory, and PhD Sociology, joining Salford's Information Systems Institute. Now part of Salford Business School, David writes papers on social Information Systems, and is editor of Gramsci and Foucault: A Reassessment.

Table of Contents

1.Introduction
2.Bergson's Core Ideas
3.Bergson Redux
4.Systems Theory Grows Up
5.Durée Compléxe
6.Creative Emergence