Peter Erdi (auth.)978-3-540-35778-0, 9783540357773, 3540357777, 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?
Table of contents :
Front Matter….Pages I-XV
Complex Systems: The Intellectual Landscape….Pages 1-23
History of Complex Systems Research….Pages 25-55
From the Clockwork World View to Irreversibility (and Back?)….Pages 57-107
The Dynamic World View in Action….Pages 109-163
The Search for Laws: Deductive Versus Inductive….Pages 165-183
Statistical Laws: From Symmetric to Asymmetric….Pages 185-199
Simple and Complex Structures: Between Order and Randomness….Pages 201-235
Complexity of the Brain: Structure, Function and Dynamics….Pages 237-303
From Models to Decision Making….Pages 305-351
How Many Cultures We Have?….Pages 353-364
Back Matter….Pages 365-397
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