Complexity: A Philosophical Overview

by Rescher,Nicholas

• ISBN13: 9781560003779
• ISBN10: 1560003774
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-06-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Table of Contents

Preface	xi	(2)
Introduction	xiii
1. The Ways of Complexity	1	(24)
1. What Complexity Involves	1	(7)
2. Modes of Complexity	8	(8)
3. The Cognitive Aspect	16	(9)
2. The Complexity of the Real	25	(30)
1. The Descriptive Inexhaustibility of Things: The Law of Natural Complexity	26	(5)
2. Descriptive Incompleteness	31	(2)
3. The Dynamic Aspect of Descriptive Inexhaustibility: The Instability of Knowledge	33	(3)
4. The Cognitive Opacity of the Real	36	(5)
5. Nomic, or Operational Complexity	41	(4)
6. The Imperfectibility of Knowledge in a Complex World	45	(10)
3. Cognitive Progress in a Complex World: Destabilization and Complexification	55	(20)
1. Spencer's Law: The Dynamics of Cognitive Complexity	55	(3)
2. The Principle of Least Effort and the Methodological Status of Simplicity-Preference in Science	58	(6)
3. Complexification and the Disintegration of Science	64	(7)
4. Complexity and the Human Sciences	71	(4)
4. Complex Knowledge: The Growth of Science and the Law of Logarithmic Returns	75	(16)
1. The Expansion of Science	75	(2)
2. The Law of Logarithmic Returns	77	(5)
3. The Rationale and Implication of the Law	82	(2)
4. The Growth of Knowledge	84	(2)
5. The Centrality of Quality and Its Implications	86	(5)
5. Technological Escalation and the Exploration Model of Natural Science	91	(14)
1. Accounting for Our Cognitive Competence in Managing Complexity	91	(5)
2. The Exploration Model of Scientific Inquiry	96	(2)
3. Technological Escalation: An Arms Race Against Nature	98	(7)
6. The Theoretical Unrealizability of Perfected Science	105	(24)
1. Conditions for Perfected Science	105	(2)
2. Theoretical Adequacy: Issues of Erotetic Completeness	107	(3)
3. Pragmatic Completeness	110	(3)
4. Predictive Completeness	113	(2)
5. Temporal Finality	115	(2)
6. The Dispensability of Perfection	117	(2)
7. "Perfected Science" as an Idealization that Affords a Useful Contrast Conception	119	(2)
8. Science and Reality	121	(8)
7. Extraterrestrial Science	129	(22)
1. The Potential Diversity of "Science"	129	(6)
2. The One World, One Science Argument	135	(5)
3. First Principles	140	(6)
4. Potential Plurality of Science	146	(5)
8. Are There Any Limits to the Problem-Solving Capacity of Computers	151	(14)
1. Could Computers Overcome Our Limitations?	151	(1)
2. Problem Solving by Computers	152	(2)
3. Theoretical Limits are not Meaningful Limitations	154	(1)
4. Practical Limits: Inadequate Information	155	(2)
5. Practical Limits: Limits of Prediction--Real-Time Processing Problems	157	(1)
6. Practical Limits: Limitations of Representation in Matters of Detail Management	157	(2)
7. Inherent Limits of Prediction--Self-Insight Problems	159	(2)
8. Practical Limits: Limits of Modeling--Cognitive Thermodynamics	161	(1)
9. The Human Element	162	(3)
9. Coping with Cognitive Limitations: Problems of Rationality in a Complex World	165	(8)
1. Stage-Setting for the Problem: Issue Resolution Hinges on Available Information	165	(4)
2. Ideal vs. Practical Rationality: The Predicament of Reason	169	(4)
10. Technology, Complexity, and Social Decision	173	(18)
1. Technological Progress Makes Life More Complicated	173	(4)
2. Problem Complexity Outpaces Solution Complexity	177	(4)
3. The Intimidating Impetus of the Unknown: Risk and Destabilization	181	(3)
4. Concretization Quandaries and Decision Gridlock	184	(4)
5. A Retrospective Reflection	188	(3)
11. Complexity's Bearing on Philosophical Anthropology	191	(20)
1. Dimensions of Finitude	191	(2)
2. Ramifications of Complexity: The Paradox of Finitude	193	(6)
3. Principles of Complexity	199	(3)
4. Philosophizing in a Complex World	202	(3)
5. After Postmodernism	205	(6)
Bibliography	211	(6)
Index of Names	217