ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to consider political life as a series of complex processes that the life sciences can help us to understand more fully. It provides an in-depth analysis of their substantive content but, to avoid any misunderstanding, a brief historical account of their development is in order. The book analyses the analysis of the foundations of systems theory and cybernetics; they follow a logical progression from a discussion of the complexity inherent in the concept of system itself to that of the complexity of the self-regulated systems described by the first generation of cybernetic models and to a reflection on selforganizing complexity. It focuses on the more specifically political aspects of societal evolution. The book proposes a threedimensional grid which is articulated around the ontological notions of existence, consciousness and self-consciousness.
