Background to contextualize the concept of @Complex Thinking:
In the 20th century, no concept was redefined with such depth as “complex”. From a common and scientific use that had lost its roots and related it to the complicated, the tangled and the difficult to understand, it resumed its original meaning and came to mean a new perspective to designate the human being, nature, and our relations with her. Thus, the term "complex" today designates an understanding of the world as an entity where everything is intertwined, as in a fabric made up of fine threads, in short, complexus: what is woven together.
The contemporary authors of the complex
For such a radical change in meanings have converged the human practices instead, the sciences, and the brilliant minds of recent times. Some contemporary authors like to point out that the complex can be spoken today in three complementary senses:
Complexity Sciences
Complexity sciences, when it comes to research that in various fields advance scientific knowledge by introducing an understanding of the world as an interlocking system. These scientific studies, aided by powerful computational devices, have advanced in the creation of models to explain the behavior of systems over time, thus opening up new fields of research and new tools to understand these types of systems. Indirectly, from these studies, an understanding of the world as an interlocking system is formed, exhibiting completely new and surprising properties, such as non-linearity, or new forms of determination such as deterministic chaos. The main contribution of these theories consists in the advancement of knowledge of specific systems, and the creation of models and computational simulations that allow us to understand them as entities that cannot be reduced to simple causal relationships.
Complex Worldview
Complex worldview, when philosophical elaborations are carried out as in Bertalanffy's systemic thought, and since the seventies, Ilya Prigogine's interpretations about the need to understand instability as a property of nature and the reconstruction of our relationships with it; or deep ecology, his proposal. This type of philosophical-world-vision elaboration relates scientific studies to practical life: From the explanation of the world as a system that exhibits complex properties, it is concluded about how to reconstruct our relationships with it.
The Interpretation of Complex Thinking: Edgar Morin
Complex thinking, when it comes to building a new method on the basis of the complex ideas that emanate from the sciences and their conjugation with humanistic, political, social and philosophical thought, as is the case of the French universalist thinker Edgar Morin. Complex thinking is also used in a narrower sense, to designate scientific studies that attempt to explain the complex dynamics of the objects under study, without extracting more general worldview or methodological consequences. Edgar Morin has called this position restricted complexity, to differentiate it from the broader and more humanistic one that he holds, where he defines it as a new method of thought, valid for understanding nature, society, reorganizing human life, and seeking solutions to the problems. crisis of contemporary humanity.
The plot of complexity
Any of these classifications should take the rest into consideration, since the challenge of complexity consists precisely in the recognition of the plots or networks of relationships, and the human impossibility of exhausting them in knowledge. This relationship of antagonism and complementarity must also be considered with respect to classifications of the complex, and attempts to "measure" or quantify complexity.
On the other hand, each of these aspects is related to the other, and the differentiation is conditioned by the perspective from which it is valued.
Studies of the complex have impacted scientific areas that study nature and society. Among the most relevant scientists who have contributed to this field are Benoit Mandelbrot, Ilya Prigogine, René Thom, Francisco Varela, Humberto Maturana, Edgar Morin, among others.
The of complex ideas
The evolution of complex ideas in the 20th century can be characterized in three major moments. The first, in the sixties, where work is done in various scientific fields without transcending the new conceptual developments beyond very specific areas. Between the seventies and eighties, there is a greater socialization of complex ideas between various disciplinary fields. Finally in the nineties, there is a media boom that placed complexity and complexity in doc Scientific numbers, popular magazines and the press.
The impact of the idea of complexity
It is difficult to measure the impacts of new ideas, but in the case of the study of the complex, its impact has been felt in the natural and social sciences, as well as in the forms of organization of knowledge. Thus, in direct relation to the study of the complex and the overcoming of the classic disciplinary forms of organization of knowledge, inter, multi and transdisciplinary strategies have been developed, such as the one proposed by Basarab Nicolescu.
The problem of complexity and @Edgar Morin
The study of the complex has also had an impact on the most direct sphere of human interactions: education, the interpretation of , politics, and the understanding of the current moment in which humanity is living. The problem of complexity has become the problem of life and living, the problem of building the future and the search for solutions to contemporary problems. In the words of #Edgar Morin, when talking about complexity «… It is about facing the difficulty of #thinking and #living» ¹.
Suggestion: Consult this document to deepen the subject (it is in English):
Edgar Morin’s Path of Complexity
Alfonso Montuori
¹E. Morin (2004): The Method, Volume 6. The Ethics, Paris, Seuil, col. Points, p. 224.!