History of Complex Systems Research

Abstract

There is no doubt that the superstars of 20th century science are in atomic physics (including nuclear and particle physics) and molecular (if you wish “particle”) biology. Both disciplines were driven by searching for the constituents of the organized whole. The “take home message” of the lessons from the history of science is that methodological reductionism, the analytical decomposition of structures to parts, should be completed by searching for organizational principles, too.