ABSTRACT
In the introduction to this book I mentioned that the fi rst, and probably the most signifi cant, contribution of complexity theory is to make us appreciate the complex nature of realities and the uncertainties that generates in knowledge processes. Then I noted that this appreciation is important, because complexity theory challenges the implicit simplifying assumptions of the Newtonian/positivist scientifi c methods, such as the universe is a clockwork mechanism, and therefore we can gain a certain and complete knowledge of it by breaking down the clockwork to its most basic elements. This Newtonian/positivist reductionist approach to scientifi c inquiry undergirds the mainstream methodologies of the natural and social sciences today.
