On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Phil Graham wrote:
> After investing much intellectual effort in chaos and complexity theory, I
> realised the metaphorical strengths of the paradigm. However, I must add
> that they are just that: picturesque, and sometimes obfuscating, metaphors.
Good point, but it also happens to other models and theories.
The construing of a complex system, such as a cultural ecosystem,
only as the framework for "emergent phenomena", usually subsumes the
existence of a control hierarchy that is "bottom up", in contrast of the
usual of "top down", but the linear topology is maintained. Where is the
loop?. In the process, the loops, the voices, the other, the
responsibility, the author, the human, the organization, are all lost. In
other words, an complex heterarchy is being flattened to a linear
hierarchy. The heteropraxia is being reduced to a monopraxia, to the one
in power, of course.
When to fields meet, the clash can be turbulent, but it has to be
a two way process. Even in linear systems, is it the body that falls or
the earth that raises? Both, although one is easier to measure. The
cultural scaffold though, in the case of using complex systems, privileges
one reading instead of another. But it is not enough to criticize the
social sciences based on the misunderstandings of science. It is also
necessary for the sciences to start to "listen" to the social sciences and
the humanities. The problem is that in a culture that usually do not
question science, that is more challenging to do.
Ate mais,
Luiz
_____________________________________________________________
Luiz Ernesto Merkle merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario voice: +1 519 858 3375 (home)
Department of Computer Science fax: +1 519 661 3515 (work)
N6A 5B7 London Ontario Canada http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~merkle