Epistemic Complexity and the Sciences of the Artificial
- Autores: Subrata Dasgupta
- Localización: New challenges to philosophy of science / coord. por Hanne Andersen, Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao J. González Fernández, Thomas Uebel, Gregory Wheeler, 2013, ISBN 978-94-007-5844-5, págs. 313-323
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
In 1962 Herbert Simon articulated the nature of complexity of both natural and artificial systems. A system, he said, is complex if it is composed of a large number of components that interact in nontrivial ways. I will label Simon’s notion as systemic complexity. However, in the case of artifacts – things produced or conceived in response to some need or desire – there is another type of complexity which is especially relevant. This is the richness of the knowledge embedded in an artifact. I call this epistemic complexity. It comprises of the knowledge that both contributes to the creation of an artifact and the knowledge generated as a result of that creation.
Insofar as artifacts are what the sciences of the artificial are about, we might hope that the study of epistemic complexity might deepen our understanding of the sciences of the artificial and the nature of artifact creation.
In this paper I use examples from the history of technological artifacts to analyze aspects of epistemic complexity and its relation to systemic complexity.
