1st Edition

Complexity A Philosophical Overview

By Nicholas Rescher Copyright 1998
238 Pages
by Routledge

238 Pages
by Routledge

220 Pages
by Routledge

Our world is enormously sophisticated and nature's complexity is literally inexhaustible. As a result, projects to describe and explain natural science can never be completed. This volume explores the nature of complexity and considers its bearing on our world and how we manage our affairs within it. Rescher's overall lesson is that the management of our affairs within a socially,... Read more
1. The Ways of Complexity 2. The Complexity of the Real 3. Cognitive Progress in a Complex World: Destabilization and Complexification 4. Complex Knowledge: The Growth o f Science and the Law of Logarithmic Returns 5. Technological Escalation and the Exploration Model of Natural Science 6. The Theoretical Unrealizability of Perfected Science 7. Extra-terrestrial Science 8. Are There Any Limits to the Problem-Solving Capacity of Computers 9. Coping with Cognitive Limitations: Problems of Rationality in a Complex World 10. Technology, Complexity, and Social Decision 11. Complexity ’s Bearing on Philosophical Anthropology

Biography

Nicholas Rescher, distinguished university professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, is currently chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science.