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

Ragnar van der Merwe ()
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Ragnar van der Merwe: University of Johannesburg, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Johannesburg, The Republic of South Africa

Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, 2023, vol. 21, issue 1, 1-17

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.

Keywords: complex systems; complexity theory; Stuart Kauffman; Sandra Mitchell; Edgar Morin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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