Introduction to Systems Science (Exploring Complexity)

Author: Yan Zexian, Fan Dongping, Zhang Huaxia
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This book is highly responsive in integrating the latest achievements from various schools of international complexity studies and presents a relatively complete theoretical formulation of complexity system science research for the first time in domestic academia. It contains a brilliant description of the dialectics of complexity: although the evolution of systems is generally unpredictable in a precise sense, it is predictable and derivable in the sense of simulation iteration, and the emergence process can even be observed in computer simulation experiments. This serves as a powerful refutation of 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 comprehensive and extensive in discussion, yet appropriately written and easily understandable.