Chapter 6: Advancing Complexity Theory into the Human Domain

This chapter argues that complexity theory is currently struggling to find relevance in the domain of human activity because it is trapped within the dualistic distinction between two quite different worldviews. On one hand, adherents of the Platonic way of thinking, see complexity as the myriad different ways that reality may be constructed from basic building blocks of concrete substance. On the other hand, followers of the Heraclitean doctrine that ‘all things flow’ see complexity as the unpredictable outcome of myriad, time-dependent, relational processes. Although this dualism is pervasive in contemporary Western thinking, there are significant examples of radical new theory development that transcend this fundamental distinction between substance and process. Specifically, Einstein’s special theory of relativity, Bergson’s theory of duration, and Kelly’s theory of personality are presented as illustrations of theories that have emerged from the unsticking of dualistic assumptions. Suggestions for the advancement of complexity theory are then derived from these illustrations.