Holism and reductionism are the old and the long-term debated issues both in science and philosophy,and are also one of the core issues in the contemporary complexity science.This paper analyses the inter-level causal...Holism and reductionism are the old and the long-term debated issues both in science and philosophy,and are also one of the core issues in the contemporary complexity science.This paper analyses the inter-level causal view of complex systems based on the results of the research in modern complexity sciences.It argues the need to go beyond causal reductionism,pointing out the limitations of the model of theoretical reduction in understanding and explaining the behaviors of complex systems,and the incompleteness of individualism in social scientific methodology while explaining the complex social organizational behaviors.It proposes a multi-level and multi-dimensional co-evolutionary ’complex holism’ which is compatible with and goes beyond Reductionism.展开更多
文摘Holism and reductionism are the old and the long-term debated issues both in science and philosophy,and are also one of the core issues in the contemporary complexity science.This paper analyses the inter-level causal view of complex systems based on the results of the research in modern complexity sciences.It argues the need to go beyond causal reductionism,pointing out the limitations of the model of theoretical reduction in understanding and explaining the behaviors of complex systems,and the incompleteness of individualism in social scientific methodology while explaining the complex social organizational behaviors.It proposes a multi-level and multi-dimensional co-evolutionary ’complex holism’ which is compatible with and goes beyond Reductionism.
