Qualitative complexity : ecology, cognitive processes and the re-emergence of structures in post-humanist social theory / John Smith and Chris Jenks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, John A., 1947 April 16-

Contributor:

Jenks, Chris.

Series:

International library of sociology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Philosophy.

Social sciences.

Social systems.

Chaotic behavior in systems.

Physical Description:

vi, 302 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2006.

Summary:

Offering a critique of the humanist paradigm in contemporary social theory, Qualitative Complexity is the first comprehensive sociological analysis of complexity theory. Drawing from sources in sociology, philosophy, complexity theory, 'fuzzy logic', systems theory, cognitive science and evolutionary biology, John Smith and Chris Jenks present a new series of interdisciplinary perspectives on the sociology of complex, self-organizing structures.

Contents:

The interdisciplinary field

Complexity theory : a positioning paper

From Descartes' conjecture to Kant's subject and the computo

Autopoiesis in cognitive biology

Emergentism, evolutionary psychology and culture

Prigogine's thermodynamics, ontology and sociology

Critical developments

Modernism and determinism : linear expectations and qualitative complexity analyses

Complexity theory as a critique of postmodernism

Cognition and the renewal of systems theory : redundant idioms and disputed positions

The evolution of intelligence, consciousness and language : implications for social theory

Complexity, language and culture : social systems in qualitative, i.e. not formal, terms

The fields of complex analysis : contemporary complexity theory

The ethics of pragmatism : politics and post-structuralism in transition after the complexity turn

The topology of complexity

Re-interpreting global complexity as an ontology : human ecology.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 286-290) and index.

ISBN:

0415336503

OCLC:

63297727

Publisher Number:

9780415336505