Open AccessIrreducibility and emergence in complex systems and the quest for alternative insights
Author(s) -
Hosseinie Radmarz,
Mahzoon Mojtaba
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
complexity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1099-0526
pISSN - 1076-2787
DOI - 10.1002/cplx.20377
Subject(s) - dilemma , metaphysics , epistemology , irreducibility , objectivism , philosophy , panacea (medicine) , philosophy of science , sketch , computer science , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , algorithm
Abstract The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. Henri Poincaré In this essay, we briefly survey the contemporary scientific and philosophical debates on emergence and conclude that this notion has become a dilemma. We argue that the reason for this dilemma is metaphysical. Subsequently, we investigate some fundamental philosophical methods in science, such as Cartesian reduction and objectivism, as the main sources of scientific drawbacks. Eventually, we suggest some refinements in philosophical methods for improvement of scientific insight and propose the method of transcendentionism as a metaphysical panacea to encounter the dilemma of emergence. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 17,10–18, 2011