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p.255 different intellectual traditions have different understandings of what the nature and status of meaningful knowledge is... there is no agreement even on the criteria for what would count as meaningful knowledge.
p.256 if we acknowledge that the world in which we live is complex; we also have to acknowledge the limitations of our understanding of this world.
p.256 The term 'modest' will be used to describe reflective positions that are careful about the reach of the claims being made and of the constraints that make these claims possible. The aim of this article is to argue for the importance of modest positions when trying to deal with complex problems.
p.256 The failure to acknowledge the complexity of a certain situation is... a technical error... A modest position should... be... a responsible one.
p.257 Complex systems... operate under conditions not at equilibrium... Complex systems consist of many components... Components on average interact with many others... Complex systems display behaviour that results from the interaction between components... This is sometimes called emergence... Complex systems display behaviour over a divergent range of timescales. This is necessary in order for the system to cope with its environment. It must adapt to changes in the environment quickly, but it can only sustain itself if at least part of the system changes at a slower rate than changes in the environment.
p.258 If one considers the implications of these characteristics carefully a number of insights and problems arise:
- The structure of a complex system enables it to behave in complex ways... Complex behaviour is possible when the behaviour of the system is constrained...
- ...the knowledge gained by an description is always relative to the perspective from which the description was made... only a limited number of characteristics of the system can be taken into account by any specific description...
- In describing the macro-behaviour (or emergent behaviour) of the system, not all the micro-features can be taken into account. The description is a reduction of complexity. Nevertheless, macro-behaviour is not the result of anything else but the micro-activities of the system.
These insights have important implications for the knowledge-claims we make when dealing with complex systems... The knowledge we have of complex systems is based on the models we make of these systems, but in order to function as models - and not merely as a repetition of the system - they have to reduce the complexity of the system. This means that some aspects of the system are always left out of consideration.
p.258-259 We cannot have complete knowledge of complex systems; we can only have knowledge in terms of a certain framework. There is no stepping outside of complexity... We choose our frameworks... Our knowledge of complex systems is always provisional. We have to be modest about the claims we make about such knowledge... Meaning and knowledge... [are] always contingent and contextual. The context itself is not transparent, but has to be interpreted... knowledge is provisional. We cannot make purely objective and final claims about our complex world... This is, of course, a contested opinion.
p.261 the view from complexity acknowledges that some form of performative tension is inevitable. We are playing in what Wood (1990: 150) calls the 'theatre of difficulty', and this requires a certain 'performative reflexivity' (1990: 132). We need to demonstrate the difficulties we are in: also in the way we talk about them. Our discourse should reflect the complexities... It is only by acknowledging that we are in trouble that we can start grappling with the complexities around us.
p.263 the view from complexity claims that we cannot know complex things completely (Cilliers, 2002). This does not imply that we can know nothing about complex systems, or that the knowledge claims we make about them have to be vague, insipid or weak. We can make strong claims, but since those claims are limited, we have to be modest about them... When dealing with complexity, modest positions are inescapable... We can make clear, testable assertions about complex systems. We can increase the knowledge we have of a certain system, but this knowledge is limited and we have to acknowledge these limits.
The fact that our knowledge is limited is not a disaster, it is a condition for knowledge. Limits enable knowledge.
p.264 having limits means something is excluded, and we cannot predict the effects of that exclusion. Knowledge is a fragile and, above all, contingent thing
p.264 Complex systems are not balanced on a knife's edge between chaos and order. They have mostly robust structures, which change over time and enable the system to respond to different circumstances.
p.264 The view from complexity entails that we cannot have perfect knowledge of complex systems. We cannot 'calculate' the performance of, for example, complex social systems in their complexity; we have to reduce that complexity; we have to make choices... Furthermore, the claim that our understanding of complex systems cannot be reduced to calculation means that there will always be some form of creativity involved when dealing with complexity.
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