Theory of Science - MDH · Theory of Science SCIENCE ... Post-modernism was a radical critique against science, contemporary philosophy ... policies in science which provide resources

CDT403 Research Methodology in Natural Sciences and Engineering

Theory of ScienceSCIENCE RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY SOCIETYSCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY,

COMPLEXITY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic

1School of Innovation, Design and Engineering

Mälardalen University

THEORY OF SCIENCE

L t 1 INFORMATION COMPUTATION KNOWLEDGE ANDLecture 1 INFORMATION, COMPUTATION, KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE

Lecture 2 SCIENCE AND CRITICAL THINKING. PSEUDOSCIENCE AND WISHFUL THINKING - DEMARCATION

Lecture 3 SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, COMPLEXITY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITYCOMPLEXITY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY

Lecture 4 VALUES AND ETHICS - PROFESSIONAL & RESEARCH ETHICS

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SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGYAristotle's Distinctions between Science and Technology

Science TechnologyScience Technology

Object unchangeable changeable

Principle of motion inside outside

End knowing the general knowing the concrete

Activity theoria: end in itself poiesis: end external

Method abstraction modeling complexity

Process conceptualizing optimizing

I ti f di i tiInnovation form discovery invention

Type of result law-like statements rule-like statements

Time perspective long-term short-term

3

SCIENCE IN MICRO AND MACROCOSMOSLevels of abstraction/Levels of organization

Sciences, Objects and Methods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akbilxS1dGc&feature=related zoom in – zoom out

SCIENCE OBJECTS DOMINATING METHOD

Si l R d ti i ( l i )Simple Reductionism (analysis)

Logic &Mathematics

Abstract objects:propositions, numbers, ... Deduction

Natural objects: physical bodies,Natural Sciences

Natural objects: physical bodies, fields and interactions, living

organisms ...Hypothetico-deductive method

Social SciencesSocial objects:

human individuals, groups, society, Hypothetico-deductive method + Hermeneutics.. Hermeneutics

HumanitiesCultural objects: human ideas,

actions and relationships, language, artefacts…

Hermeneutics

C l H li ( th i )

4

Complex Holism (synthesis)

SCIENCE, RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Research

Development

Science

Technology

5

CLASSICAL SCIENCES LANGUAGE BASED SCHEMELANGUAGE BASED SCHEME

Culture(Religion, Art, …)

Natural Sciences

Logic &

Mathematics

Natural Sciences(Physics,

Chemistry,Biology, …)

Social Sciences(Economics,

Sociology,Anthropology )Anthropology, …)

The Humanities(Philosophy, History,

Computing

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(Philosophy, History,Linguistics …)

SCIENCES BASED ON SEVERAL RESEARCH FIELDSSCIENCES BASED ON SEVERAL RESEARCH FIELDS – CROSS DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Our basic scheme represents classical sciences. Many modern sciences however are stretching over several research fields of our scheme.research fields of our scheme. Computer science e.g. includes the field of AI that has its roots in mathematical logic and mathematics but uses physics, chemistryand biology and even has parts where medicine and psychologyand biology and even has parts where medicine and psychologyare very important.Software Engineering include both formal methods and project management. a age e tHCI, human-computer interaction combines knowledge from “hard” and “soft” sciences.Computer games border with arts

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Computer games border with arts.

TECHNOLOGY

8

WRITINGTHE ARCHRAILWAYSELECTRICITYELECTRICITYCOMPUTER

TELEVISIONAUTOMOBILECAMERA/TELESCOPE

ANTIBIOTICSANESTHETICS

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SEWING MACHINEINTERNET

DNA SEQUENCING

PROCESS OF VIRTUALIZATION IN TECHNOLOGY

http://www youtube com/watch?v=zh 8 iV4Plo&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh_8_iV4Plo&feature=related Top 10 greatest inventions of mankind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2TkrC40VUc The History of Information Technology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg598hH_348The History of Technological Innovations VideoThe History of Technological Innovations Video

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TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS OUR WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT THINGS, EXPANDS OUR WAYS OF DOING THINGSOUR WAYS OF DOING THINGS.

Herbert A. Simon

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SCIENCE AND SOCIETYSCIENCE AND SOCIETYTHE “TRIPLE HELIX” MODEL

SOCIETY

Knowledge society

CULTURE

o edge soc etybased on ICT

The triple helix model:

SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

The triple helix model: – ACADEMIA– PRODUCTION

(ECONOMY)SCIENCES & HUMANITIES (ECONOMY)– GOVERMENT

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SOCIETAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCE

Science has several important facets:

- insights in foundational issues (understanding of the world)- applications (practical use)- societal aspects (impact on the society)

Sciences are promoting rational and analytical discussions of the central issues of concern to scientists and other scholars, and to the public at large, both in terms of knowledge production and in practical applicationspractical applications.

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SOCIETAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCESOCIETAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCERESEARCH COMMUNITY AS INFORMATIONAL NETWORK

“ .. if we consider Galileo alone in his cell muttering, ‘and yet ithis cell muttering, and yet it moves,’ with the recent meetingat Kyoto – where heads of states, lobbyists, and scientists ywere assembled together in the same place to discuss the Earth – we measure the difference ..”

Bruno Latour

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SOCIETAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCE

Further reading on current topics:http://www.sciencemag.org

Essays on Science and Society Science magazine

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POSTMODERNISM AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

Modernism may be seen as the height of the Enlightenment's* quest for an rational knowledge, aesthetics, and ethics.

Postmodernism is a cultural and philosophical movement which formed in reaction to modernism.

Postmodernism is concerned with how the authority of rational ideals, sometimes called meta-narratives**, are undermined through fragmentation and deconstruction.

*The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was a cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe, that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed

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order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in Church and state.

**Meta-narratives - "grand narratives“, form of ‘universal truth'

POSTMODERNISM

Postmodernism attacks the primacy of ideas of universals and encourages fractured, fluid and multiple perspectives and isencourages fractured, fluid and multiple perspectives and is marked by an increasing importance in the ideas from the Sociology of knowledge.

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POSTMODERNISM

All knowledge, scientific knowledge included, is found to be socially constructed. Being “socially constructed” implies not absolute, but relative to the humans and humanity. No (absolute) objectivity exists for humans (or any other intelligent agents)exists for humans (or any other intelligent agents).

From that correct observation, postmodernist draw a very far-reaching conclusion: “Science is merely one story among others ”reaching conclusion: Science is merely one story among others.

The world we know is one that is constructed by human discourses. (correct) From the point of view of knowledge (epistemologically )(correct) From the point of view of knowledge (epistemologically ), a scientific text is understood as being on a par with a literary text. (false)

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TWO CULTURES

2009 marked the 50th anniversary of C. P. Snow’s famous “Two Cultures” essay, in which he lamented the great cultural divide that separates two great areas of human intellectual activity, p g y,“science” and “the arts.” Snow argued that practitioners in both areas should build bridges, to further the progress of human knowledge and to g , p g gbenefit society.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=an-update-on-cp-snows-two-cultures Image: Matt Collins h // i /2009/03/22/b k / i /Di ik h l? d ll O T C lhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/books/review/Dizikes-t.html?pagewanted=all Our Two Cultures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consilience_(book) Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist E.

O. Wilson.19

SCIENCE WARS (1)

In early 1996 the physicist Alan Sokal who was provoked by postmodernist negative attitude to science caused a controversy by publishing two provocative journal articles.

The first article, Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity appeared in theTransformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity appeared in the journal Social Text.

It pretended to be a serious article on the implications ofIt pretended to be a serious article on the implications of developments in the field of cultural studies for developments in modern physics, and vice-versa.

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SCIENCE WARS (2)

The second article, A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies, appeared in the journal Lingua Franca just as issue of Social Textcontaining the first article was published. It revealed that the first article was a hoax.

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SCIENCE WARS (3)

But why did Sokal do it? He says:

“I'm a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists gy , y,an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them. “

All S k lAllan Sokal

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SCIENCE WARS (4)

“To test the prevailing intellectual standards, I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment:

Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies (..) publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and(a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions? “

Allan SokalAllan Sokal

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SCIENCE WARS (5)

The post modern ideas were known as Social Constructivism andThe post modern ideas were known as Social Constructivism and Deconstructionism.

The branch of sociology Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK) andThe branch of sociology, Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK) and Science and Technology Studies (STS) were influences by postmodern movements and had the objective of showing that the results of scientific findings did not represent objective reality, but were basically g p j y, yinstruments of the ideology of dominant groups within society.

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POSTMODERNIST ANTI-SCIENTISM

Post-modernism was a radical critique against science, contemporary philosophy and current understanding of rationality.

The view of science as a search for truths (or approximate truths) about the world was rejected.

According to postmodernism, the natural world has a subordinated role in the construction of scientific knowledge.

S ``Science was just another social practice, producing ``narrations'' and ``myths'' with basically no more validity than any other myths.

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IS THERE ANYTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN? ANY PROGRESS?

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AN EXAMPLE OF PROGRESS - TRANSPORTATION

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AN EXAMPLE OF PROGRESS - TRANSPORTS

28“Beam me up Scotty” next?

SCIENCE WARS (6)SCIENCE WARS (6)

Sources for further reading:

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal

http://www.math.gatech.edu/~harrell/cult.htmlp g

http://skepdic.com/sokal.html

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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM POSTMODERNISM?

Humans always produce theories that are context-dependent and based on our (human) perspective. It is good to be aware of that ( ) p p gcontext in which science operates.

Society is an important factor when it comes to politics, including policies in science which provide resources for science.

In a given context, by scientific methods we can reach our best k l d hi h i t tl i iknowledge, which is constantly improving.

If not seen as absolute, but our best common knowledge about the physical world science has a very distinct position among

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the physical world, science has a very distinct position among different possible descriptions of the world.

END OF SCIENCE WARS AND NEW EMERGING ALLIANCES

At present, a lot of activity in cross-disciplinary, multi-disciplinaryand inter-disciplinary collaborations.

Examples: Computing and Philosophy http://ia-cap.organdInterdisciplines (Topics: Adaptation and Representation Art andInterdisciplines (Topics: Adaptation and Representation, Art and Cognition, Causality, Enaction (Action and perception intertwined), Issues in Coevolution of Language and Theory of Mind.)http://www interdisciplines orghttp://www.interdisciplines.org

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RESEARCH, COMMUNICATION AND ICT

New development of collaborations between different researchbetween different research disciplines is enabled by the progress of technology.However, there is a problem ofHowever, there is a problem of communication: Different knowledge fields traditionally have different languages.g g

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RESEARCH, COMMUNICATION AND ICT

Sciences cover well defined domains (physics, mathematics, biology, sociology, economy…) where knowledge is produced by specificknowledge is produced by specific scientific communities through intense communication within a group and with not much communication with the restnot much communication with the rest of the world.

However access to knowledge haveHowever, access to knowledge have become easy and communication between sciences, arts and humanities more and more common

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more and more common.

Cybernetics as a Language for Interdisciplinary Communication

Stuart A. UmplebyThe George Washington University

Washington, DCwww gwu edu/~umplebywww.gwu.edu/ umpleby

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HOW IS INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNICATIONHOW IS INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNICATION POSSIBLE?

[Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory. Both in its origins and in its evolution in the second-half of the 20th century, cybernetics is equally applicable to physical and social (that is, language-based) systems.equally applicable to physical and social (that is, language based) systems. (Wikipedia)]

• We need to share a common languageWe need to share a common language

• Perhaps there is a common “deep structure” which is hidden by our more specialized discipline-oriented terms and theoriesour more specialized discipline-oriented terms and theories

35After Stuart A. Umpleby

COMMON PROCESSES IN THE EXTERNAL WORLD

James G. Miller’s suggests that living systems exist at seven levels: - cell, - organ,organ, - organism, - group, - organization, - nation, - supranational organization


BASIC CONCEPTS

In cybernetics there are three fundamental concepts:

RegulationRegulation

Self-organization

Reflexivity


REGULATION

Regulation is based on two elements – regulator and system being regulated

Engineering examples – thermostat and heater, automatic pilot and airplane

Biological examples – feeling of hunger and food in stomach, light in eye and iris opening

SSocial system examples – manager and organization, therapist and patient


THE LAW OF REQUISITE VARIETY

Information and selection“The amount of selection that can be performed is limited by

the amount of information available”the amount of information available

Regulator and regulated“The variety in a regulator must be equal to or greater than theThe variety in a regulator must be equal to or greater than the

variety in the system being regulated”W. Ross Ashby


COPING WITH COMPLEXITY

When faced with a complex situation, there are two choices

1 Increase the variety in the regulator: hire staff or1. Increase the variety in the regulator: hire staff or subcontract

2 Reduce the variety in the system being regulated: reduce2. Reduce the variety in the system being regulated: reduce the variety one chooses to control


THE MANAGEMENT OF COMPLEXITY

• There has been a lot of discussion of complexity, as if it exists in the world

• Cyberneticians prefer to speak about “the management of complexity”

• Their view is that complexity is observer dependent, that the system to be regulated is defined by the observer


SELF-ORGANIZATION

• Every isolated, determinate, dynamic system obeying unchanging laws will develop organisms adapted to their environments. W. Ross Ashby

• Many elements within the system• Boundary conditions

– open to energy (hence dynamic)– structures closed to information (interaction rules do not

change during the period of observation)

http://www-lih.univ-

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plehavre.fr/~bertelle/cossombook/cossombook.htmlComplex Systems and Self-organization Modelling After Stuart A. Umpleby

Examples of self-organization

Physical example – chemical reactions; iron ore, coke, and oxygen heated in a blast furnace will change into steel, carbon dioxide, water vapor and slag

Biological examples – food in the stomach is transformed into usable energy and materials, species compete

i ld i l d d h ito yield animals adapted to their environments, insect swarms


SELF-ORGANIZATION IN ARTIFACTSSELF ORGANIZATION IN ARTIFACTS

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/amorphous/Robust Biologically-inspired Models of Cell Differentiation and Morphogenesis

http://www youtube com/watch?v=SkvpEfAPXn4 Robots with minds ofhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkvpEfAPXn4 Robots with minds of their own

http://www.calresco.org/links.htm Self-organization resources

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DIGITAL VIDEO FEEDBACK AND MORPHOGENESIS

Video Feedback systems tend toward either stability or chaos. The unstable attractor offers an unlimited supply of endless evolving motifs and an emergent behaviourevolving motifs and an emergent behaviour. The system can be get into chaotic emergence via camera movement (rotation and positioning) The important thing is toand positioning). The important thing is to catch the movement of ‘catching a shape’ in a particular temporal phase to feed back into the system advancing the complexity

d i iti ti lif lik h iand initiating lifelike morphogenesis.http://www.transphormetic.com/Talysis01.htm

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COMPLEX SYSTEMSCOMPLEX SYSTEMS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmrWfRX42ZM&feature=relatedSelf-organizing adaptive systemsg g p yhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueJ0E-H7hkk&feature=relatedRegime shifts

Four Important Characteristics of Complexity:• Self-Organization g• Non-Linearity • Order/Chaos Dynamic y• Emergent Properties

46http://www.calresco.org/links.htm

COMPLEX SYSTEMSCOMPLEX SYSTEMS

Computer Programming approaches used for demonstrating, simulating, and analyzing Complex de o st at g, s u at g, a d a a y g Co p eSystems:

• Artificial Life • Genetic Algorithms • Neural Networks • Cellular Automata • Boolean Networks

47http://www.calresco.org/links.htm

SELF-REFERENCESELF REFERENCE

48http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/guarana/docs/design-html/node2.htmlComputational Reflection

DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER ON SELF-REFERENCE

“ Self-reference is ubiquitous. It happens every time any y yone says “I” or “me” or “word” or “speak” or “mouth”. It happens every time a newspaper prints a story about reporters, every time someone writes a book about writing designs a book about book design makes awriting, designs a book about book design, makes a movie about movies, or writes an article about self-reference. Many systems have the capability to represent or refer to themselves somehow, to

( f )designate themselves (or elements of themselves) within the system of their own symbolism. Whenever this happens, it is an instance of self-reference.”

“My proposal [...] is to see the “I” as a hallucination perceived by a hallucination, which sounds pretty strange, or perhaps even stranger: the “I” as a

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g p p ghallucination hallucinated by a hallucination.”(I Am a Strange Loop, p. 293 )

SELF-REFERENCE (REFLEXIVITY)

This model has traditionally been avoided and is logically difficult.

Inherent in social systems where observers are also participants, in individual living organisms.g g

Every statement reveals an observer as much as what is observed.


EXAMPLES OF SELF REFERENCE:EXAMPLES OF SELF-REFERENCE:RECURSIVE ALGORITHMS

This graph is based on a simple recursive algorithm Recursion isrecursive algorithm. Recursion is a popular technique used to describe trees and the like, because of the self-referentialnature of a treenature of a tree.

Self-reference can lead toSelf reference can lead to undecidability (and paradoxes like set of all sets that are not members of themselves)

51

Self reference (Reflexivity)Self-reference (Reflexivity)

Observation

52Self-awareness

After Stuart A. Umpleby

Reflexivity in a social system

53Stuart A. Umpleby

A pragmatic view of i t l

A biological view of i t l h th

A realist view f i t l

The view of i t l

Social CyberneticsBiological CyberneticsEngineering Cybernetics

The biology of cognition vs. Realism vs. ConstructivismReality vs. scientific A key distinction

epistemology: knowledge is constructed to achieve human purposes

epistemology: how the brain functions

of epistemology: knowledge is a “picture” of reality

epistemology

Explain the relationship between the natural

Include the observer within the domain of science

Construct theories which explain observed

The puzzle to be solved

gy gthe observer as a social participant

ytheories

y

How people create, maintain, and change social systems through

How an individual constructs a “reality”

How the world worksWhat must be explained

and the social sciencesp

phenomena

Ideas are accepted if they serve the observer’s p rposes as a social

Ideas about knowledge should be rooted in ne roph siolog

Natural processes can be explained by scientific theories

A key assumption

social systems through language and ideas

By transforming conceptual systems (through persuasion, not

i )

If people accept constructivism, they will be more tolerant

Scientific knowledge can be used to modify natural processes to b fit l

An important consequence

purposes as a social participant

neurophysiology.scientific theories

54Three Versions of Cybernetics

coercion), we can change society

benefit people

After Stuart A. Umpleby

CYBERNETICS VIEW OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS:THE CORRESPONDENCE PRINCIPLE

Proposed by Niels Bohr when developing the quantum theory.

Any new theory should reduce to the old theory to which it corresponds for those cases in which the old theory is known to hold

A new dimension is required


NEW PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Old philosophy of science

Amount of attention paid to the observer

An Application of the Correspondence Principle


NEW PARADIGM OF COMPUTING:NEW PARADIGM OF COMPUTING:Organic computing

Organic computing is a form of biologically-inspired computingwith organic properties. It has emerged recently as a challenging vision for future information processing systems. Organic Computing is based on the insight that we will soon be surrounded by large collections of autonomous systems, which are equipped with sensors and actuators, aware of their environment, communicate freely, and organise themselves in order to perform the actions and services that seem to be required.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_computing

57

ORGANIC COMPUTING

The presence of networks of intelligent systems in our environment opens fascinating application areas but, at the same time, bears the problem of their controllability.

Hence, we have to construct such systems — which we increasingly depend on — as robust, safe, flexible, and trustworthy as possible.

In particular, a strong orientation towards human needs as opposed to a pure implementation of the technologically possible seems absolutely central.

In order to achieve these goals, our technical systems will have to act more independently, flexibly, and autonomously, i.e. they will have to exhibit life-like properties. We call those systems "organic".

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ORGANIC COMPUTING

• An "Organic Computing System" is a technical system, which adapts dynamically to the current conditions of its environment. It is characterised by the self-X properties:

• self-organization, • self-configuration (auto-configuration), • self-optimisation (automated optimization)• self-optimisation (automated optimization), • self-healing, • self-protection (automated computer security),

f• self-explaining, • and context-awareness.

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ORGANIC COMPUTING

• In order to be able to build huge intelligent organic-computing systems we have to learn from variety of fields – from physics, chemistry, genetics, biology to sociology and linguistics.

• In other words we have to learn to manage complexity of knowledge production from different research fields.knowledge production from different research fields.

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CONCLUSIONS: TRANSDISCIPLINARY, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSS ,DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Modern sciences are stretching through several classical fields.

Computer science e.g. includes the field of AI that has its roots inComputer science e.g. includes the field of AI that has its roots in mathematical logic and mathematics but uses physics, chemistryand biology and even parts where medicine and psychology are important.

Examples: Environmental studies, Cognitive sciences, Cultural studies, Policy sciences, Information sciences, Women’s studies, , y , , ,Molecular biology, Philosophy of Computing and Information, Bioinformatics, ..

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CONCLUSIONS:CONCLUSIONS: TRANSDISCIPLINARY, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSS DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Research into complex phenomena has led to an insight that research problems have many different facets which may be approached differently at different levels of abstraction and that every knowledge field has a specific domain of validity.

This new understanding of a multidimensional many-layeredThis new understanding of a multidimensional many layered knowledge space have among others resulted in an ecumenical conclusion of science wars by recognition of the necessity of an inclusive and complex knowledge architecture which recognizes importance of a variety of approaches and types of knowledge.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORK:TRANSDISCIPLINARY INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSSTRANSDISCIPLINARY, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSS DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Based on sources in philosophy, sociology, complexity theory, systems theory, cognitive science, evolutionary biology and fuzzy logic, Smith and Jenks present a new interdisciplinary perspective on the self-organizing complex structures.

They analyze the relationship between the process of self-organization and its environment/ecology. Two central factors are the role of information in the formation of complex structure and the development of topologies of possible outcome spaces

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of topologies of possible outcome spaces.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK:REPRESENTATIVE WORK:TRANSDISCIPLINARY, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSS DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

The authors argue for a continuous development from emergent complex orders in physical systems to cognitive capacity of living organisms to complex structures of human thought and to g p gcultures.

This is a new understanding of unity of interdisciplinaryThis is a new understanding of unity of interdisciplinary knowledge, unity in structured diversity, also found in Mainzer.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORK

“Cosmic evolution leads from t t l it bsymmetry to complexity by

symmetry breaking and phase transitions. The emergence of new order and structure in naturenew order and structure in nature and society is explained by physical, chemical, biological, social and economic self-social and economic selforganization, according to the laws of nonlinear dynamics.

All these dynamical systems are considered computational systems processing informationsystems processing information and entropy.”

65

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

“Are symmetry and complexity only useful models of science y y p y yor are they universals of reality? Symmetry and Complexity discusses the fascinating insights gained from natural, social and computer sciences, philosophy and the arts.

With many diagrams and pictures, this book illustrates the spirit and beauty of nonlinear science. In the complex world of p y pglobalization, it strongly argues for unity in diversity.”

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i

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

Preface ix

Part IThe Simple and the Complex

1 Prologue: An Encounter in the Jungle 3

2 Early Light 11y g

3 Information and Crude Complexity 23

4 Randomness 43

5 A Child Learning a Language 51

Bacteria Developing Drug6 Bacteria Developing Drug Resistance 63

7 The Scientific Enterprise 758 The Power of Theory 89

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8 The Power of Theory 89

9 What Is Fundamental? 107

P t II Th Q t U i Part III Selection and FitnessPart II The Quantum Universe

10 Simplicity and Randomness in the Quantum Universe 123

16 Selection at Work in Biological Evolution and Elsewhere 235

From Learning to CreativeQ

11

A Contemporary View of Quantum Mechanics: Quantum Mechanics and the 135

17 From Learning to Creative Thinking 261

18 Superstition and Skepticism 275QClassical Approximation

12 Quantum Mechanics and Flapdoodle 167

19 Adaptive and Maladaptive Schemata 291

20 Machines That Learn or Simulate Learning 307

13 Quarks and All That: The Standard Model 177

S i h ifi i

Learning

Part IV Diversity and Sustainability

21 Di i i U d Th 32914 Superstring Theory: Unification at Last? 199

15 Time's Arrows: Forward and 215

21 Diversities Under Threat 329

22 Transitions to a More Sustainable World 345

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15 Backward Time 21523 Afterword 367

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

Philosophy of InformationPhilosophy of Information (Handbook of the Philosophy of Science) (Hardcover)by Pieter Adriaans & Johan F.A.K. vanby Pieter Adriaans & Johan F.A.K. van Benthem (Editors), 2008

DM. Gabbay, P Thagard & J Woods (S i Edi )(Series Editors)

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Philosophy of Science/Theory of Science Assignments

– Assignment 2: Demarcation of Science vs. Pseudoscience (in groups of two)

– Discussion of Assignment 2 - compulsoryDiscussion of Assignment 2 compulsory– Assignment 2-extra (For those who miss the discussion of the

Assignment 2)– Assignment 3: GOLEM: Three Cases of Theory Confirmation (in– Assignment 3: GOLEM: Three Cases of Theory Confirmation (in

groups of two) – Discussion of Assignment 3 - compulsory

Assignment 3 extra (For those who miss the discussion of the– Assignment 3-extra (For those who miss the discussion of the Assignment 3)

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AND AN EXAMPLE OF THE ROLE OF PERSPECTIVEAND AN EXAMPLE OF THE ROLE OF PERSPECTIVE AT THE END!

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Documents

Theory of Science - MDH · Theory of Science SCIENCE ... Post-modernism was a radical critique against science, contemporary philosophy ... policies in science which provide resources