Sept 21:: The University portion of the seminar was canceled due to low enrollment and other issues. The Virtual Seminar continues, however, and has been modified to be more driven by real-time discussion on the Life@nexial.org list. Please contribute suggested topics and readings. Each topic will run as long as it is of interest, from a week to a month, depending on participation.
Post Siminar Contributions to www.nexial.org/life
Connection to University courses: From time to time this on-line seminar is intended to be connected to actual classes at various universities as they are formed. The hope is to spawn such seminars on functional complexity and explanations of life.
Recommended texts
(available in paperback):
Essays on Life Itself: Robert Rosen
Format: This discussion will be conducted as a seminar with recommended topics and readings contributed by the participants. Focus will be on discussion of the readings for a given topic. We will proceed topic by topic in more depth than other on-line fora. The idea is to reach farther into the literature and think each topic through to some useful conclusions. Participants should construct their comments in a wel thought out form, with adequate references. We will attempt some synthesis of ideas at the end of each topic discussion before moving on to the next.
Brief Description: We will survey a selection of literature in systems thinking focused on concepts of function in complexity and scientific attempts to define life, centering on the ideas of Dr. Robert Rosen, a theorist who wrote extensively on this question. Functional complexity challenges modern analytical science in a number of ways. Should it be ignored, or is it needed to solve cultural and scientific problems that are of a systemic and complex nature? Are functional concepts scientific? Rosen struggled for a lifetime against entrenched biases against his deep system views, to develop what he believed was a rigorous and scientific theory of life. His work has many precedents and reaches very far to the foundations of science and epistemology, while attempting to avoid the pitfalls of past theories. In this seminar we will employ Rosen's framework for thinking about complexity as a means to understand and relate his and other work. This will put us face-to-face with the strongest controversies in this subject while suggesting pathways for further research.
While using Rosen's work as a framework, it is not the intent
to limit this discussion to that work. In fact, we hope to incorporate the
work of many other authors on these topics with in-depth discussion of their
views as well, with the aim of establishing a general framework that can relate
them all.
Course Resources:
Why should you take
this course? Modern science teaching is steeped in tradition – tradition
that is changing and expanding to embrace emerging ideas in complexity, cybernetics,
and systems theory. At the root of most of these questions is the issue of
life itself; because living systems, including human systems, seem to defy
purely mechanical explanations and models. Life has traditionally been defined
in terms of what it does - its quantifiable behavior -- not what it is, and
even asking this question has been thought heretical. But traditional definitions
may be inadequate for understanding complexity, which is at the root of all
living systems. A major paradigm change in how we view nature itself may be
needed. Rosen explores this problem, taking us to the deepest fundamental
levels of science. By following this path we come into contact with some of
the most basic controversies in science. Rosen believed the needed paradigm
change would affect every field of science, even physics, and have great implications
for society and cultural evolution. It is important to understand what these
ideas are, their relationship to traditional views, why they have only recently
begun to emerge, and what their impact may, or may not be.
Go to: Schedule and Readings
This page is hosted by the Nexial
Institute, Boulder Colorado
Contact: John J. Kineman