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Theoretical Biology and Complexity
Three Essays on the Natural Philosophy of Complex Systems
- 1st Edition - August 9, 1985
- Editor: Robert J. Rosen
- Language: English
- Hardback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 5 9 7 2 8 0 - 2
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 4 5 6 7 - 6
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 7 2 3 4 - 4
Theoretical Biology and Complexity: Three Essays on the Natural Philosophy of Complex Systems is made up of three short essays—each separately conceived and written, each with… Read more
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Request a sales quoteTheoretical Biology and Complexity: Three Essays on the Natural Philosophy of Complex Systems is made up of three short essays—each separately conceived and written, each with distinct thrusts and emphases, but nevertheless closely related in substance and spirit. All three spring from a common concern: to grasp and comprehend the material basis of living systems. The first essay is about the interaction between particles and the consequent observable manifestations. It casts the analysis of the measurement process into an elegant dualism relating modes of description, and explores the consequences of this dualism for what may be called classical physics. The second essay explores the deeper consequences of representing the properties of natural systems through states built up out of observable quantities, and the dynamics that such systems impose on each other through interactions. The final essay argues that traditional modes of system representation, involving fixed sets of states together with imposed dynamical laws, strictly pertains only to an extremely limited class of systems (called simple systems or mechanisms). Systems not in this class are called “complex,” and these can only be in some sense approximated, locally and temporally, by simple ones. Such a radical alteration of viewpoint leads to a large number of concrete, practical consequences, some of which are described in the essay.
List of Contributors
Preface
1 The Dynamics and Energetics of Complex Real Systems
I. Introduction
II. Hierarchical Structure
III. Forces and Fields
IV. Congruence of Representations
V. Scalar Potential Energy
VI. Vector Potential Energy
VII. Field Equations
VIIL Pseudo-Potentials
References
2 Categorical System Theory
List of Special Symbols
I. Introduction
II. Preliminaries: Category Theory
III. The Category of Formal Systems
IV. Dynamical Systems
V. Topological Dynamics
VI. The Category of Natural Systems
VII. Biological Implications
VIII. Conclusion
References
3 Organisms as Causal Systems Which are Not Mechanisms: An Essay into the Nature of Complexity
I. Introduction
II. Biology and Other Sciences
III. Relational Biology
IV. The (M, R)-Systems
V. A First Attempt at Realization of (M, R)-Systems
VI. The Modeling Relation
VII. The Newtonian Paradigm
VIII. Mappings and "System Laws" in the Newtonian Paradigm
IX. Causality
X. Complex Systems
XI. An Alternative Approach: "Information"
XII. Conclusion
References
Index
- No. of pages: 222
- Language: English
- Edition: 1
- Published: August 9, 1985
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Hardback ISBN: 9780125972802
- Paperback ISBN: 9781483245676
- eBook ISBN: 9781483272344
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