Complexity and Philosophy

TL;DR

This paper explores the philosophical foundations of complexity science, contrasting it with traditional reductionist views, and discusses its implications for understanding knowledge, agency, and global organization.

Contribution

It reviews the historical development and philosophical underpinnings of complexity science, highlighting its contrast with classical philosophy and its potential to reshape philosophical debates.

Findings

Complexity science challenges classical determinism and reductionism.

Multi-agent systems exhibit emergent global organization from local interactions.

Subjectivity and uncertainty are central to agents in complexity models.

Abstract

The science of complexity is based on a new way of thinking that stands in sharp contrast to the philosophy underlying Newtonian science, which is based on reductionism, determinism, and objective knowledge. This paper reviews the historical development of this new world view, focusing on its philosophical foundations. Determinism was challenged by quantum mechanics and chaos theory. Systems theory replaced reductionism by a scientifically based holism. Cybernetics and postmodern social science showed that knowledge is intrinsically subjective. These developments are being integrated under the header of "complexity science". Its central paradigm is the multi-agent system. Agents are intrinsically subjective and uncertain about their environment and future, but out of their local interactions, a global organization emerges. Although different philosophers, and in particular the postmodernists, have voiced similar ideas, the paradigm of complexity still needs to be fully assimilated by philosophy. This will throw a new light on old philosophical issues such as relativism, ethics and the role of the subject.