Rewinding history: paradoxes, evanescence and hubris in learning/knowledge explorations

James Falconer

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2011, vol. 8, issue 1, 18-29

Abstract: Complexity science's occasional regression from its fundaments of holism, interconnection, adaptation, emergence, and harmony with uncertainty, to an antipodean ground of control, simplicity, and order leads inexorably to a misguided quest for 'parts' to model in systems of interest. Deeply and multifariously flawed, philosophically, methodologically, and practically, this quest has retrograded the discipline yet produced no fruitful revelations. The core of this misdirection is echoed in three intellectual generations of failed attempts to circumscribe human/organisational learning and knowledge, by utilising, in turn, heuristics, artefacts, and mechanisation and quantification. Overcoming these errors and returning to first principles can illuminate the way for future explorations therein; complexity can provide the means to break the cycle in this way.

Keywords: complexity; simplicity; modelling; reductionism; holism; learning; knowledge. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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