Foundations of Complex-System Theories: In Economics, Evolutionary Biology, and Statistical Physics (Revised)

基本信息

Format:Paperback / softback 420 pages, Worked examples or Exercises

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Imprint:Cambridge University Press

ISBN:9780521778268

Published:28 Aug 1999

Classifications:Cybernetics & systems theory, Nonlinear science

Readership:Professional & Vocational

Weight:764g

Dimensions:245 x 188 x 23 (mm)

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

书籍简介

本书的相当大部分致力于对科学理论和模型的表述，从而为进行哲学分析提供素材。由于多体系统的复杂性，诸学科基本上依赖于理想化和近似，各学科部分成了许多强调系统不同假面的模型。我将尽力展开模型。背扣的假设和预设，便于读者评价它们那些通常是有文化影响的声称。除了对一般概念进行澄清，我希望本书可以激起不同领域科学家之间的相互对话，不仅关于他们正在研究什么，还关于他们正在如何进行。因此，我努力使本书的内容易于一般读者理解，把诸学科的概念结构（conceptual struc-tures）尽可能解释清楚，尽量少引用行话，并在每一专业术语第一次出现时予以解释。由于本书的覆盖面很广，我将力求简明，使主要思想凸现出来，而不拘泥于细节。

科学主义过分炫耀科学且背离科学精神，这激起了让许多科学家吃惊的对科学的敌意。祸起萧墙。我们不要仅仅抱怨公众不愿意支持科学研究，或许我们应当检查自己，看看是不是我们做得太过分了，而成了科学主义。

——欧阳莹之

Complex behaviour can occur in any system made up of large numbers of interacting constituents, be they atoms in a solid, cells in a living organism, or consumers in a national economy. Analysis of this behaviour often involves making important assumptions and approximations, the exact nature of which vary from subject to subject. Foundations of Complex-system Theories begins with a description of the general features of complexity and then examines a range of important concepts, such as theories of composite systems, collective phenomena, and stochastic processes. Each topic is discussed with reference to the fields of statistical physics, evolutionary biology, and economics, thereby highlighting recurrent themes in the study of complex systems. This detailed yet nontechnical book will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about complex systems and their behaviour. It will also be of great interest to specialists studying complexity in the physical, biological, and social sciences.

Complexity is a very hot field, and this book attempts to demystify it

Written in a nontechnical level that is accessible to students of all fields

The only book in which theories from the physical, biological, and social sciences are analyzed and compared in detail

目录

1. Introduction

Part I. Equilibrium:

2. Theories of composite systems

3. Individuals: systems and constituents

4. Situated individuals and the situation

5. Interacting individuals and collective phenomena

6. Macro individuals and emergent properties

Part II. Dynamics:

7. The temporality of dynamical systems

8. The complexity of deterministic dynamics

9. Stochastic processes

10. Directionality, history, expectation

11. Epilogue.

作者简介

欧阳莹之（Sunny Y. Auyang），美籍华裔物理学家、科学学家。分别在上海、香港、美国读小学、中学、大学，1972年获麻省理工学院物理学博士学位，并在麻省理工学院从事研究工作20年。1992年以来，她的研究兴趣转向科学技术本性的哲学考察。著有《量子场论如何可能？》、《日常生活和认识科学中的心智》等。

Sunny Y. Auyang has worked as a research scientist at Hewlett-Packard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the author of Mind in Everyday Life and Cognitive Science.