ABSTRACT

The Taoists, it appears, were quite clear about the centrality of chaos to their belief system, and references similar to the one above in other mythologies beg several important questions. What meaning or relationship does chaos, and to a lessor extent, complexity theory share with science and philosophy? Theorists in science have been quick to point out that the term chaos is actually a misnomer, for in chaos there is essentially an underlying order, a determinism (Briggs & Peat, 1989; Gleick, 1987).