Vincent Robert is now the co-author of a book on “the relationship between matter and complexity” published by Atlande : https://www.atlande.eu/forum/989-matiere-et-complexite-9782350308753.html
What is the relationship between matter and complexity? How can philosophy account for this? What can this approach teach us? Using a multitude of concrete examples and by defining each concept used, the authors succeed in giving an impression of simplicity to the expression of a bold and subtle thought. We will discover, for example, that complexity does not mean the same thing in thermodynamics, molecular chemistry, genetics or artificial intelligence. We will touch the notions of emergence and adaptation, intrinsically linked to that of complexity.
The book also proposes a reasoned path of theoretical concepts (complexity, complication, self-organization, chaos, dissipative systems…) by placing them in a philosophical genealogy that goes back to the Aristotelian conception of matter and their practical application in the field of quantum chemistry. But above all, he takes us out of our philosophical comfort by proposing to substitute the notion of traces for that of origin, in the sense that, in a perspective of generalized relativity, the states of matter, at a given moment, do not have a cause but are inscribed in a permanently renegotiated relationship with other material elements. From it emerges an impression of constructed and controlled vertigo and controlled, the result of a double dialectical movement, from the philosophical point of view, between construction and deconstruction, from the point of view of hard sciences, between order and emergence.
A real pleasure for the mind.
