Randomness Statistics And Emergence 2nd Edition

In Randomness, Statistics, and Emergence, McShane illustrates how classical and statistical procedures complement one another. One of the conclusions he draws in Randomness is that emergence and evolution are explained in terms of probabilities of emergence and probabilities of survival of recurrence-schemes. To arrive at a principle of emergence, McShane focuses on actual procedures of empirical investigators and the type of explanation they seek. Those doing the relevant sciences—biophysics and biochemistry are his focus in the last four chapters—can verify objective randomness and emergence by attending to their performance. McShane also makes beginnings in heuristics of biological and scientific growth and development. The first edition of this book was first published in 1970. The second edition includes a second preface, “The Riverrun to God,” written by McShane in the fall of 2012. It also includes an editor’s introduction written by Terrance Quinn, author of Invitation to Generalized Empirical Method in Philosophy and Science and The (Pre-) Dawning of Functional Specialization in Physics.

There is a growing interest in the character and the challenge of the Anthropocene. Although efforts to pin down beginning dates of this epoch have been debated, there is a broad consensus that humanity is facing an unprecedented challenge to surviving on Earth, a challenge which humans have created ourselves. Undeniably, we have had and continue to have impacts on the planet as a whole. These include ravaging bushfires and unprecedented flooding caused by climate change, spiking levels of carbon dioxide levels, and widespread loss of biodiversity. The challenge has been expressed in various ways: the larger challenges of climate change or ocean garbage toxicity, the subtler challenges that would support such large efforts by cultivating a new aesthetic. The present book asks of us to reach for the deeper grounding of all such efforts. Perhaps that asking is best hinted at by pluralizing the word character in a paradoxical non-question: “What is to be the 'character' of the characters transforming the Anthropocene from its present negativity to a positive period of human flourishing.” What is missing, what we are in the dark about, is the apparently simple turn that would have us asking, “What’s what?” The focus must be concrete: so we are to think of miners and farmers and reformers and economists and educators, but primarily of ourselves as whats. Might we begin the positive Anthropocene’s success by beginning to sow what comprehendingly?

McShane's broad interest is in finding a full effective cultural basis of a future humanity. In The Future: Core Precepts in Supramolecular Method and Nanochemistry (2019), he expressed what he considers the effective road forward. The present book enlarges on that reach. The effective road involves a clear operative distinction between the negative Anthropocene, in which we presently live shabbily and destructively, and the positive Anthropocene towards which we must work slowly and democratically, against empires of idiocy, by tuning into the chemistry of our desires. This little book moves along with many twists and turns, but it is also a straightforward help to begin to read properly the two main treatments by Lonergan of the topic of Interpretation: Section 3 of chapter 17 of Insight, and chapter 7 of Method in Theology.

The Joy of Stats offers a reader-friendly introduction to applied statistics and quantitative analysis in the social sciences and public policy. Perfect as an undergraduate text or self-study manual, it emphasizes how to understand concepts, interpret algorithms and formulas, analyze data, and answer research questions. This brand new edition offers examples and visualizations using real-life data, a revised discussion of statistical inference, and introductory examples in R and SPSS. The third edition has been extensively reorganized with shorter chapters and closer links between concepts and formulas, while retaining useful pedagogical features including key terms, practice exercises, a math refresher, and playful inserts on "the mathematical imagination." The Joy of Stats also places a strong emphasis on learning how to write and speak clearly about data results. Supported by a companion website with data sets and additional resources, The Joy of Stats is a superb choice for introducing students to applied statistics and for refreshing and reviewing stats as a social scientist, public policy professional, or community activist.

Examining the difficulties of conflict resolution, Transforming Conflict through Insight demonstrates how applying Bernard Lonergan's philosophy of insight to mediation can lead to more productive and constructive negotiations. Kenneth R. Melchin and Cheryl A. Picard provide both an overview of conflict research and an introduction to Lonergan's "insight theory," offering an outstanding piece of ethical philosophy and a useful method of mediation. Introducing readers to a method of self-discovery, the different kinds of operations involved in learning, and the role of feelings and values in shaping interactions with others in conflict, this volume also includes the practical experience of mediators who detail strategies of insight mediation for working creatively through conflict. Attending to the important role played by transformative learning in navigating conflicts, the authors show how insights and learning can move people past obstacles caused by feelings of threat. Informative, compassionate, and convincing, Transforming Conflict through Insight is a welcome resource for working to resolve difficulties in an ethical and educational manner.

Recounts the startling reach of Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) in areas as diverse as pragmatic self-knowledge, mathematical logic and metalogic, economics, and systematic theology. The final chapters highlight the importance of physics in his magnum opus Insight as well as his breakthrough identification of a practical theory of history.

This book provides a self-contained presentation of the physical and mathematical laws governing complex systems. Complex systems arising in natural, engineering, environmental, life and social sciences are approached from a unifying point of view using an array of methodologies such as microscopic and macroscopic level formulations, deterministic and probabilistic tools, modeling and simulation. The book can be used as a textbook by graduate students, researchers and teachers in science, as well as non-experts who wish to have an overview of one of the most open, markedly interdisciplinary and fast-growing branches of present-day science. Contents:The Phenomenology of Complex Systems:Complexity, a New ParadigmSignatures of ComplexityOnset of ComplexityFour Case StudiesSumming UpDeterministic View:Dynamical Systems, Phase Space, StabilityLevels of DescriptionNormal FormsThe Limit of UniversalityDeterministic ChaosEmergenceCoupling-Induced ComplexityModeling Complexity Beyond Physical ScienceProbabilistic Description:Need for a Probabilistic ApproachProbability Distributions and Their Evolution LawsThe Retrieval of UniversalityComplexity in the Probabilistic DescriptionEmergence RevisitedTransitions Between StatesSimulating Complex SystemsDisorder-Generated ComplexityComplexity, Entropy and Information:Information EntropyDynamical EntropiesInformation Entropy ProductionLarge Deviations, Fluctuation Theorems and the Probabilistic Properties of Time SequencesAlgorithmic Complexity and ComputationDynamical Systems as Information Sources: Scaling Rules and SelectionFurther Information MeasuresSumming UpPrediction:Communicating with a Complex SystemClassical Approaches and Their LimitationsNonlinear Data AnalysisThe Monitoring of Complex FieldsThe Predictability HorizonRecurrenceExtreme EventsSelected Topics:The Arrow of TimeNanosystemsAtmospheric DynamicsClimate DynamicsNetworksPerspectives on Biological ComplexityEquilibrium Versus Nonequilibrium in Complexity and Self-OrganizationEpistemological Insights from Complex SystemsOutlook. The Future of Complexity Readership: Graduate students, researchers, academics and professionals interested in nonlinear science. Keywords:Nonlinear Dynamics;Chaos;Self-Organization;Emergence;Probability and Information;Predictability;Non-Equilibrium Systems;Irreversibility;Systems BiologyKey Features:A unique vision highlighting complexity as part of fundamental science and a clear, unifying presentation of the concepts and tools needed to analyze complex systemsIllustrates the interdisciplinary dimension of complexity research through representative examples pertaining to problems of current concernNew edition, including a large collection of exercises and problems with hints for solution and an updated survey of the literatureReviews: “The book can be used as a textbook by graduate students, researchers and teachers in science, as well as non-experts who wish to have an overview of the field.” Zentralblatt MATH