Re: Merging WST and complexity science

I don't have anything terribly profound to contribute at this point
regarding channels of dissipation.  I suppose one might begin to look at
the European demographic recovery of the late 14th/15th centuries, and the
fact that Europe could channel its excess population to the New World (and
then to Asia and Africa) without worrying overmuch about social reform or
ecological damage (it's interesting that the demographic recovery
coincides with the rise of absolutism).  Another fruitful direction is to
look at the rise of the Westphalian polity and the codification of the
interstate system after 1648.  The nation-state and the realist paradigm
in international relations were far from ideal solutions, but they did go
a long way toward restoring peace in Europe after the debacle of the
30-years War.  However, if the balance of power system was generally
beneficial for recognized polities, it was disastrous for most
non-European polities, which suddenly became entities without any rights
whatsoever (as far as Europeans were concerned).  At roughly the same
time, Hobbes redefined the state as the institution which delivers us from
the state of nature; the two spheres, nature and society were now
absolutely distinct, and societies (i.e. Westphalian polities) were
recognized as infinetely expansive into the natural sphere (i.e. at the
expense of the rest of the world).  The rise of the scientific method and
standards of evidence in the 18th century performed a similar operation on
all other knowledge traditions, which overnight became superstitions
because their practitioners did not wear wigs or attend meetings at
scientific academies.  The rise of Hellenomania in the nineteenth century
created a measure of cultural coherence (lost since the Reformation) among
the different European countries, but this phenomenon completed the
devaluation of non-European epistemologies, since anyone who did not regard
himself as an heir to Classical antiquity had nothing worthwhile to say (and
was certainly not fit to govern).

These are just some examples - there is still a long way before they are
operationalized as effective mechanisms of dissipation or susceptible to
measurement, though I would be interested in hearing others' ideas in this
regard.


On Fri, 13 Jun 2003, Andre Gunder Frank wrote:

> i would be most ap[predciative for sny guides on how to do this, how to
> instrumentalize, measure, or even identify the channels of
> dissipation. in my case they include the multilaterality of the system,
> which is the other main theoretical leg on which my anazlysis rests or
> is suposed to rest, if i can pull it off.
> gunderOn Fri, 13 Jun 2003, Boris
> Stremlin wrote:

-- 
Boris Stremlin
bstremli@binghamton.edu