From Biology to Sociopolitics: Conceptual Continuity in Complex Systems

Heinz Herrmann envisions the inanimate world, life, and human existence as systems of increasing complexity that represent physical, biological, and sociopolitical realities. Herrmann compares the different ways that physics and biology reach conceptual continuity. In the ideal systems of physics, he says, the general abstractions of theories lead to the establishment of conceptual continuity. The author offers a historical survey and numerous examples to illustrate the range and meaning of conceptual continuity, and he proposes the paradigm not as an exclusive alternative but as a complementary mode of understanding complex systems.