For those of you who are following this blog for more intellectual insights, here is a new thought on a key idea that many of us have been wrestling with.
At the center of this issue Is the notion of parsimony. Generally considered synonymous with the idea that theories should be as small and simple as possible.
As noted in my articles, there are many scholars who argue for theory that is not parsimonious. And, of course, my research indicates that there is no great reason to have theory that is parsimonious, except to make it convenient. To solve the problems of today's world, however, we don't need tools that are convenient, we need tools that work.
A better standard, then, is to create theories that are more complex and more systemic - to represent our world which is both complex and systemic.
Now, I would like to add one more idea to the mix.
Perhaps it is important that we create series of such high levels of complexity that we cannot possibly grasp the full meaning of the theories. Because, then we will have an indicator that our theories are one step closer to replicating our minds and our realities... Which are so complex that we cannot possibly understand them.
In this way, we are pushing ourselves to the "edge of chaos" where many new insight are said to occur.
No comments:
Post a Comment