Introduction to Systems Science - Exploring Complexity

Author: Yan Zexian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: This book is highly responsive in integrating the latest achievements of various schools of complexity studies internationally. It provides a relatively complete theoretical formulation of the scientific research on complex systems within the Chinese academic community for the first time. The book contains a brilliant description of the dialectics of complexity: although the evolution of systems is generally unpredictable in the overall sense, it is predictable and derivable in the sense of simulation iteration. Moreover, the emergence process can even be observed in computer simulation experiments, offering a powerful rebuttal to modern agnosticism. The book also scientifically elucidates the mechanisms of bidirectional interaction between "upward causation" and "downward causation," as well as "upward search" and "downward search," thereby revealing the living dialectics of nature. The content is concise, the arguments are prominent, and the logic is clear. Comprising five parts and twelve chapters, it is both extensive and comprehensive in discussion while remaining appropriately narrated and easy to understand.