Chaos theory has captured scientific and popular attention. What began as the discovery of randomness in simple physical systems has become a widespread fascination with "chaotic" models of everything from business cycles to brainwaves to heart attacks. But what exactly does this explosion of new research into chaotic phenomena mean for our understanding of the world? In this timely book, Stephen Kellert takes the first sustained look at the broad intellectual and philosophical questions raised by recent advances in chaos theory—its implications for science as a source of knowledge and for the very meaning of that knowledge itself.
In the Wake of Chaos
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sanity confronts chaos theory,
By
This review is from: In the Wake of Chaos: Unpredictable Order in Dynamical Systems (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series) (Paperback)
The author investigates the question: with all the research (and hype) in chaos theory, what has been the actual impact on our understanding of the world? I give the book 5 stars for completing it's stated mission, being readable and enjoyable, and for not pandering to a lcd.Kellert approaches this question from a philosophical, but down-to-earth, view. From the start, this is certainly not a "gee-whiz" hop-on-the-bandwagon book. In fact, the prologue begins: "Chaos theory is not as interesting as it sounds. How could it be?" Yet, Kellert is not out to dismiss chaos theory, but rather to make sense of what the implications of chaos theory are. Unpredictability and determinism are two such topics potentially affected by chaos theory. Quantum mechanics is another topic influenced by chaos theory. And later in the book he ponders the historical question: why did it take so long for nonlinear dynamics (chaotic systems) to come under study? There is very little math. The intended audience seems to be those who have some notion of chaos theory already, and although an introductory chapter is included, it would be helpful to understand conceptually what a Lyapunov exponent is and what bifurcation means. The book is footnoted sufficiently but not overdone. It is heavily (but not annoyingly) referenced with everyone from Poincare to Prigogine. Despite the years that have passed since initial publication, I do not think this book has become obsolete. Another way to say this is: chaos theory (and it's results) is still not the mind-shattering revolution that some have made it out to be. If you have some science and math background and have been asking yourself "So, just what the heck does all this talk about chaos theory really mean??", then this book is for you.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Different view,
By Ivan Matic "Ivan" (Zagreb, Croatia) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: In the Wake of Chaos: Unpredictable Order in Dynamical Systems (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series) (Paperback)
Among the loads of literature on chaos theory, this one is definitely different and the one to chek up on.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
In the past 25 years, scientists working in such fields as fluid mechanics, chemistry, and population biology have developed many successful mathematical models for natural phenomena. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
predictive hopelessness, value determinateness, unstable aperiodic behavior, total predictability, geometric mechanisms, computational explanation, unique evolution, differential dynamics, metaphysical tenet, sensitive dependence, chaos theory, order within chaos, worthwhile time, dynamical chaos, prediction tasks, logistic map, chaotic systems Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Francis Moon, John Earman, Mark Stone, Robert Shaw, James Yorke, Robert May, Evelyn Fox Keller, Ilya Prigogine New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
In the past 25 years, scientists working in such fields as fluid mechanics, chemistry, and population biology have developed many successful mathematical models for natural phenomena. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
predictive hopelessness, value determinateness, unstable aperiodic behavior, total predictability, geometric mechanisms, computational explanation, unique evolution, differential dynamics, metaphysical tenet, sensitive dependence, chaos theory, order within chaos, worthwhile time, dynamical chaos, prediction tasks, logistic map, chaotic systems Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Francis Moon, John Earman, Mark Stone, Robert Shaw, James Yorke, Robert May, Evelyn Fox Keller, Ilya Prigogine New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 54
books:
See all 54 books this book cites
25
books
cite this book:
See all 25 books citing this book
- The Few Body Problem (Astrophysics and Space Science Library) by M.J. Valtonen in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Chaos and Order in Nature (Springer series in synergetics) by H. Haken in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Scientific Explanation (Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science) by Philip Kitcher in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Directions in Chaos (World Scientific Series on Directions in Condensed Matter Physics) by B. L. Hao in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Open Universe: An Argument for Indeterminism From the Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery by Karl Popper on page 53, and Back Matter
See all 54 books this book cites
- Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History (Strategy and History) by Colin Gray on page 23, page 115, and Back Matter
- The Gendered Atom: Reflections on the Sexual Psychology of Science by Theodore Roszak in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Nietzsche: Naturalism and Interpretation by Christoph Cox on page 210, and page 219
- The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture by Mark C. Taylor in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Evidential Foundations of Probabilistic Reasoning (Wiley Series in Systems Engineering and Management) by David A. Schum in Back Matter
See all 25 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
