In the Wake of Chaos: Unpredictable Order in Dynamical Systems

by Stephen H. Kellert

Overview

Chaos theory has captured scientific and popular attention. What began as the discovery of randomness in simple physical systems has become a widespread fascination with "chaotic" models of everything from business cycles to brainwaves to heart attacks. But what exactly does this explosion of new research into chaotic phenomena mean for our understanding of the world? In this timely book, Stephen Kellert takes the first sustained look at the broad intellectual and philosophical questions raised by recent advances in chaos theory—its implications for science as a source of knowledge and for the very meaning of that knowledge itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226429762
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	12/15/1994
Series:	Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Stephen H. Kellert is professor of philosophy at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue
1: What Is Chaos Theory?
2: Varieties of the Impossible
3: Unpeeling the Layers of Determinism
4: On the Way to Dynamic Understanding
5: Beyond the Clockwork Hegemony
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

What began with the discovery of randomness in simple physical systems--a curl of smoke, a dripping faucet--has exploded into a fascination with chaotic models for everything from brainwaves to business cycles. The author takes a look at the broad intellectual implications of chaos. He describes the challenge of chaos to traditional science, from its power to thwart the search for universal laws to its unsettling effect on such concepts as fact and event, cause and control. He points to the deep biases for order and control that kept the study of chaos in the background for years. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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