Complexity Theory and Uncertainties: Interdependence Between Man, Society, and the Environment (Understanding Complex Systems)

✍ Scribed by Wei-Bin Zhang

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 132
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book provides an overview of recent developments of complexity theory within the realm of social sciences. At a time when global and local social, political, cultural, and economic affairs are engulfed in chaos, this book sheds light on the mechanisms of uncertainties, offering new visions and frameworks for analyzing the nonlinear interactions between individuals, societies, and the environment.

From exploring the foundational elements that shape our understanding of humanity, such as worldviews, justice, and trust, to applying complexity theory in the realms of politics, economics, management, strategies, and wars, this monograph provides a comprehensive examination of its far-reaching implications. By examining historical bifurcations and structural changes in American history and China's modern development, it emphasizes how complexity theory can serve as a bridge for intellectual and cultural communication between Western (Newtonian) and East Asian (yin-yang-based) civilizations.

Moreover, the book elucidates that nonlinear phenomena, including bifurcations, catastrophes, structural changes, emergence of structures, and chaos, are integral aspects of human evolution. It unveils the positive potential within chaos, demonstrating that a comprehensive understanding of catastrophic mechanisms enables humanity to prevent global disasters by leading systems to chaotic attractors without destructive consequences. Through an exploration of the intricate interdependencies among individuals, societies, and the environment, this book offers a unique and comprehensive introduction to the application of complexity theory to the realm of humanity.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
References
Contents
1 Complexity Theory and Broadened Rationality on Man and Society
References
2 Influential Linearized Theories on Man and Society
2.1 A Few Linearized Theories on Economic Evolution
2.2 John Rawls’ and Piketty’s Linearized Approaches to Justice
2.3 Fukuyama’s Linearized Approach to Trust
2.4 Politics in the Division of Labor
References
3 Bifurcations, Chaos, and Unpredictability
3.1 Chaotic Inflations from Simple Economic Mechanisms
3.2 A Duopoly Game with Bounded Rationality and Behavioral Chaos
3.3 Housing Market Crashes and Catastrophe Theory
3.4 Delays in Actions and Business Cycles
3.5 Population Dynamics and Malthusian Economy
3.6 Chaos and Optimal Growth with Human Capital
3.7 Prey–Predator Relations and Chaos
3.8 Business and Environmental Cycles
References
4 Self-Organization, Catastrophes, and Structural Changes
4.1 Self-organizing Ant Societies and Collective Survival
4.2 The Chinese Ancient Classics Yi Jing and Chaos Theory
4.3 Cultural and Institutional Bifurcations Before Industrialization in Europe and China
4.4 Global Political, Social, and Economic Catastrophes in the 17th Century
4.5 Poverty Trap of Mainland China and Fast Growth of Taiwan From 1949 to 1978
4.6 Catastrophe Theory and China’s Economic Reform
4.7 America’s Greatness and Its Uncertain Futures
4.8 Complexity in Politics of Knowledge-Based Societies
4.9 Strategy and Complexity Theory
4.10 Geography and Nonlinear Cultural Evolution
4.11 On Complexity of Wars
References
5 Uncertainties with Power, Wealth, and Sexuality
References
Bibliography