Unsimple Truths
Science, Complexity, and Policy
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Preface
Introduction
1: A Case of Complexity
Shifting Paradigms in Epistemology
2: Complexities of Organization: How We Think About the World
Emergence versus Reduction
Kim’s Analysis
Scientific Emergence
3: Complexities of Evolved Diversity: Laws
Does Biology Have Laws?
Contingency versus Natural Necessity
Necessity, Possibility, and the Contingent Universe
4: Science: How We Investigate the World
Knockout Experiments
Redundancy and Robustness
Interventionist Causes and Modularity
5: Policy: How We Act in the World
Robustness in Scenario Analysis
The Case of Genetically Modified Food
The Precautionary Principle
6: Integrative Pluralism
Integrated Multilevel Explanation
Pragmatic Considerations
Dynamical Perspectives
Notes
References
Index
“Very stimulating. . . . [Unsimple Truths] is clean and spare and fun to read. And to argue with. What more could one ask of a philosophical treatise?”
Philosophy: General Philosophy
Physical Sciences: History and Philosophy of Physical Sciences
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