Complexity explained

Péter Érdi3540357777, 9783540357773, 9783540357780, 3540357785

This book explains why complex systems research is important in understanding the structure, function and dynamics of complex natural and social phenomena. It illuminates how complex collective behavior emerges from the parts of a system, due to the interaction between the system and its environment. You will learn the basic concepts and methods of complex system research. It is shown that very different complex phenomena of nature and society can be analyzed and understood by nonlinear dynamics since many systems of very different fields, such as physics, chemistry, biology, economics, psychology and sociology etc. have similar architecture. “Complexity Explained” is not highly technical and mathematical, but teaches and uses the basic mathematical notions of dynamical system theory making the book useful for students of science majors and graduate courses, but it should be readable for a more general audience; actually for those, who ask: What complex systems really are?

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Table of contents :
Preface……Page 5
Contents……Page 8
Complex Systems: The Intellectual Landscape……Page 13
History of Complex Systems Research……Page 36
From the Clockwork World View to Irreversibility (and Back?)……Page 67
The Dynamic World View in Action……Page 118
The Search for Laws: Deductive Versus Inductive……Page 173
Statistical Laws: From Symmetric to Asymmetric……Page 192
Simple and Complex Structures:Between Order and Randomness……Page 207
Complexity of the Brain: Structure, Function and Dynamics……Page 242
From Models to Decision Making……Page 309
How Many Cultures We Have?……Page 356
References……Page 368
Index……Page 395