ABSTRACT
(1) In a complex world, the natural dynamics of rational inquiry will inevitably exhibit a tropism towards increasing complexity. (2) To be sure, a penchant for simplicity is built into the inductive process of scientific method. But this procedurally methodological commitment does not prejudge or prejudice the substantively ontological issue of the complexity of nature. Our inductive commitment to simplicity is a matter of the procedural principle of least effort—an inseparable aspect of pragmatic rationality. (3) Scientific theorizing is an inductive projection from the available data. But data-availability is bound to improve with the changing state of the technological art—engendering a dynamism that ongoingly destabilizes the existing state of science so as to engender greater sophistication. The increasing complexity of our world picture is a striking phenomenon throughout this process. It is so marked, in fact, that natural science has in recent years been virtually disintegrating before our very eyes. (4) And this phenomenon characterizes all of science—the human sciences included. Indeed, complexification and its concomitant destabilization are by no means phenomena confined to the domain of science—they pervade the entire range of our knowledge.
