Abstract
Rethinking is the central concern of this book. Not simply of single concepts but of central concepts in their fundamental interconnectedness. This kind of focus makes the topic that we address in this book complex indeed. The basic idea of our new thinking in complexity is that these concepts may not be that simple as often presupposed in viewing and doing science. Our mission is to build a new science with a focus on thinking in complexity to overcome the trivialization of the relationship of our sciences with the complexity of reality. This is the very complexity that we take as a nonlinear complexity of reality.
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Notes
- 1.
In David R. Heise, 1975, Causal Analysis, p. 2.
- 2.
This is hard to translate in English. It contains both the process (by ‘wechsel’ or exchange) and the effects (by ‘wirkung’ or force) in one single term.
- 3.
Jaspers (1883–1969) work General Psychopathology was published in 1913.
- 4.
Starobinski calls the book General Psychopathology “the only true ‘monument’ of twentieth-century psychiatry” (p. 205).
- 5.
In the special book Psychology and Biology of Language and Thought, edited by George A. Miller and Elizabeth Lenneberg, with essays in honor of Eric Lenneberg; special, because it takes an interdisciplinary approach.
- 6.
In Doll et al., 2005, referring to the struggle of escape, from old towards new thinking by Gregory Bateson, 1991, in “A sacred unity: Further steps to an ecology of mind”, ed. by R. Donaldson. New York: Harper Collins.
- 7.
See e.g., Paul Weiss, 1978, p. 14, on the need to take care in the choice of language about causes and effects.
- 8.
Actually there was a strong opposition to this view, i.e., by the Dutch scientist Huygens (see e.g., Kuhn 1970).
- 9.
With three planets in interaction, it was not possible to predict these trajectories exactly over time (later in history this problem was known as the three-body problem in physics).
- 10.
On page 69 in his book, he refers to the discussion about this kind of modelling and the dominant view of the known cyberneticians in those days. The last group took purpose as a core concept in their thinking, which led to an ends-oriented approach. We return to this important discussion in Chap. 15.
- 11.
Cf. Kuhn (1970) on this resistance.
- 12.
He also argues, on p. 158 that Hume was not able to find that “causal processes constitute precisely the causal connections” as part of the causal structure of the world.
- 13.
See Eric Lenneberg’s view on this, which was described as “far ahead of his time”, in Wimsatt 1999, p. 173.
- 14.
This is certainly the case, in comparison with the view of Eric Lenneberg (1974) as being far ahead of his time (see fn. 13 above).
- 15.
“It is through unity (unitary power) that small things grow”. The historical message on a statue at a place along a Dutch dike at the edge of the river Lek.
- 16.
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Jörg, T. (2011). Rethinking Causality. In: New Thinking in Complexity for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1303-1_11
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