1st Edition

The Evolutionary Vision Toward A Unifying Paradigm Of Physical, Biological And Sociocultural Evolution

By Erich Jantsch Copyright 1982
    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    The evolutionary vision is a term coined by economist Kenneth E. Boulding to describe a unified view of evolution that encompasses all levels of reality, from the cosmic or physical through the biological, ecological, and sociobiological to the sociocultural. It focuses less on systems or any particular entity than on the processes through which they evolve. In this volume various approaches to the self-organization of matter and information are outlined by authors who are among the chief developers of this new paradigm. They focus on the general laws governing evolutionary dynamics across all levels of evolution, including the evolution of humans and human systems.

    1 Synergetics: Is Self-Organization Governed by Universal Principles? 2 The Evolutionary Paradigm of Dissipative Structures 3 Time, Irreversibility, and Randomness 4 Unifying Principles of Evolution, 5 Symbol-Structure Complementarity in Biological Evolution 6 Knowledge of Evolution and Evolution of Knowledge 7 The Function of Mathematics in the Evolution of the Noosphere 8 Evolutionary Visions, Sociology, and the Human Life Span 9 The Old and the New Vision 10 Concluding Remarks: Outlook

    Biography

    Erich Jantsch (1929-1980) completed his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna in 1951. He was at various times an astronomer, physicist, engineer, management consultant, forecaster, conservationist, general systems theorist, evolutionary theorist, humanist, and philosopher.