Chapter 1: Knowing Complex Systems

In this article a general description of complex systems is provided. This is used to analyze to what extent we can understand complex things. It is argued that understanding is an attribute of a subject, and that our knowledge of complex things will therefore always be limited. If this is the case, then we can never avoid normative elements when working with complexity, i.e. our knowledge of complex systems can never be the result of calculation only. We have to choose. This is not an argument against calculation, or against formal models, but it does underscore that such models are inevitably limited. Some implications for our understanding of organizations are also spelled out.