Collapsing the Complicated/Complex Distinction: It’s Complexity all the Way Down

Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 21 (1):1-17 (2023)
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Abstract

Several complexity theorists draw a sharp and ontologically robust distinction between (merely) complicated systems and (genuinely) complex systems. I argue that this distinction does not hold. Upon fine-grained analysis, ostensibly complicated systems turn out to be complex systems. The purported boundary between the complicated and the complex appears to be vague rather than sharp. Systems are complex by degrees.

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Ragnar Van Der Merwe
University of Johannesburg

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References found in this work

The Empirical Stance.Bas C. Van Fraassen - 2004 - New York: Yale University Press.
What is a complex system?James Ladyman, James Lambert & Karoline Wiesner - 2013 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 3 (1):33-67.
.M. C. Dillon (ed.) - 1991 - Suny Pr.

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