Hierarchy theory;: The challenge of complex systems (The International library of systems theory and philosophy)

This book represents a collection of essays which examines the question posed by Albert Einstein regarding the incomprehensible fact that nature is comprehensible. The book analyzes why the world is more understandable than we might otherwise have expected, but it misses the key point that if there are systems that are too complex for the human brain to comprehend, then we would not interpret them as systems at all. Thus, although Hierarchy Theory is weak on epistemology, it still offers the first serious attempt to mark the essential duality between the epistemological and ontological sides of hierarchy. Contains the "The Organization of Complex Systems" by Herbert A. Simon; "The Hierarchical Order and Neogenesis" by Clifford Drobstein; "Hierarchical Control Programs in Biological Development" By James Bonner; "The Physical Basis and Origin of Hierarchical Control" by Howard H. Pattee; and, "The Limits of Complexity" by Richard Levins. From book's "Several years ago, we in the Smithsonian Institution began thinking of ways to reawaken some of the interest in the connections between the physical and biological sciences in the tradition of our first Secretary, Dr. Joseph Henry. We agrees that it would be useful to build more bridges between the basic disciplines since the bridges already established have proved so successful, particularly in molecular biology and biophysics. The discussions which followed led to the conclusion that a common general problem of the two sciences is in how each discerns the relationships between parts and wholes. The Physicist has a tradition of analytical thinking, explaining wholes in terms of smaller and smaller parts, while the biologist has more often worked in the opposite direction, from cells to tissues to whole animals, populations and ecosystems. We recognized that while the analytical approach has been the most successfully developed, it is the problems of synthesis and control of very complex systems which now appear to be the most serious for our own survival. "