In Chaos and Determinism, members of the French Academy from several
disciplines -- including fluid mechanics, economics, philosophy,
theoretcial physics and biology -- offer scientific and philosophical
analyses of the concepts of order, chaos, and determinism as they emerge
in such complex systems as atmosphere, oceans, monetary economic, s and
biological organisms. Using turbulence in fluid mechanics as the chief
model, the authors describe and explain the behavior of systems that
tend toward a particular end-state, such as an attractor in dynamic
systems. The result is a unique interdisciplinary study of complex
behavior and its philosophical consequences in fluid mechanics,
meteorology, oceanography, physics, embryology, genetics, and economics.