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Kinds of Unfinished Description with Implication for Natural Science

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Unifying Themes in Complex Systems X (ICCS 2020)

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Abstract

The Reductive Sciences and Complexity Sciences employ micro-scale first rigorous ‘bottom-up’ reductive Logic as well as the mathematics of Symmetry and Group theory when modeling systemic change, causal relationships and mechanisms. Four kinds of ‘unfinished description’ result from this approach. First, the reductive micro-scale first assumption fails to replicate the complexity of natural evolutionary processes. Second, the reductive ‘bottom-up’ metaphor obscures significant facets of a more complicated natural evolutionary Logic. Third, abstract, rigorous, ‘bottom-up’ reductive Logic is susceptible to undecidable reductive propositions revealing formal reductive incompleteness and its implications, which include necessary meta-consideration in determining reductive logical consistency. Fourth, the powerful mathematics of Symmetry and Group Theory is not sufficient when mathematically modeling causal relationships in Nature. Consequently, the Reductive Scientific Narrative creates a ‘comprehensive’ description of causal relationships in Nature and evolution that is fundamentally ‘unfinished’. Explaining and then ‘correcting’ each of the four kinds of ‘unfinished description’ illuminates a novel path that can more closely approximate the natural system and move Reductive Science and Complexity Science toward a deeper consilience.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Dr. Yakov Shapiro and Patricia G. Scott for their steadfast support.

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Correspondence to J. Rowan Scott .

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Rowan Scott, J. (2021). Kinds of Unfinished Description with Implication for Natural Science. In: Braha, D., et al. Unifying Themes in Complex Systems X. ICCS 2020. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67318-5_5

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