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Landscapes of change: Catastrophe theory and biological processes
Author(s) -
Woodcock A. E. R.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830230410
Subject(s) - catastrophe theory , metaphor , manifold (fluid mechanics) , computer science , development (topology) , cognitive science , epistemology , mathematics , psychology , philosophy , engineering , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , linguistics , geotechnical engineering
Elementary catastrophe theory provides a method for the qualitative description of systems with associated potential energy functions. It can serve at least as an illustrative metaphor for the local description of biological development. It replaces earlier theories of development that utilized paths on an ad hoc epigenetic landscape, for example, with one that generates trajectories on a well‐defined hypersurface, the catastrophe manifold. While the elementary theory does provide a much richer mathematical language than the earlier geometric theories, it suffers from several drawbacks, outlined in this paper, which prevent it from being a conclusive theory for biological development.