Lennox Robert Rosen and Relational System Theory: An Overview

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-031-51116-5
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 8, 148 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Anticipation Science

This book focuses on Robert Rosen’s contributions to relational system theory, which is the science of organization and function. This science was originally developed by Nicolas Rashevsky, and further developed by Rashevsky’s student Robert Rosen, and continues to be developed by Rosen’s student A. H. Louie amongst others. Due to its revolutionary character, it is often misunderstood, and to some, controversial. The formal and conceptual setting for Rosen’s relational system theory is category theory. Rosen was the first to apply category theory to scientific problems, outside of pure mathematics, and the first to think about science from the point of view of category theory. To better understand the work of Rosen, this book provides an overview of his theory of modeling, complexity, anticipation, and organism. It presents the foundations of this science and the philosophical motivations behind it along with conceptual clarification and historical context in order to present Rosen’s ideas to a wider audience.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lennox, James Bryan

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface1. Introduction
2. Category Theory2.1 An Historical Note2.2 Category Theory: A General Theory of Models
3. The Modeling Relation in Science3.1 Natural Law3.2 Formal Systems3.3 Natural Systems3.4 Natural Law and the Modeling Relation3.5 Analogies, Alternative Models, and Metaphors
4. Relational Models4.1 Nicolas Rashevsky: Topology and Life4.2 Function and Organization as Global Properties4.3 Organization: A Thing in Itself4.4 Aristotle’s Four Categories of Causation4.5 Entailments in Relational Models4.6 Entailments in Relational Models Continued: Functional Entailment and Final Cause
5. Simple Systems and Complex Systems5.1 Impredicativity and Self-Reference5.2 Simulations5.3 Relational Models for Simple Systems and Machines5.4 Impredicativity and Self-Reference Continued5.5 Relational Models for Complex Systems5.6 Addendum: The Lawvere-Cantor Theorem: “Solution” to the Paradoxes
6. Anticipatory Systems6.1 An Historical Note6.2 Planning, Management, Policies, and Strategies: Four Fuzzy Concepts6.3 Anticipatory Systems are Complex Systems
7. (M, R) – Systems7.1 (M, R) – Networks7.2 (M, R) – Systems7.3 Closure: Entailment Relations in (M, R) – Systems
8. The Realization Problem8.1 The Problem8.2 Complex Systems, Again8.3 A Word on Entailment in Evolution8.4 Realization, Fabrication, and The Origin of Life
Appendix: J. S. Hofmeyr’s (F, A) – SystemsBibliography

Über Autor(innen)

James Bryan Lennox lives in Brooklyn New York. He teaches philosophy at Baruch College, The City University of New York. His interests are in the relationship between philosophy, mathematics, and science, the philosophical implications of category theory, and relational system theory. This book will be a revised version of his dissertation.