Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective provides an entirely fresh view of
the origins of organization in living systems. Writing for theoretical
ecologists, biologists, and philosophers of science, Robert Ulanowicz
mounts a powerful challenge to prevailing mechanistic paradigms of
ecology. Ecology, Ulanowicz argues, needs a more robust central
paradigm, and this book presents one derived from current work in
information theory, ecosystem energetics, and complexity theory; the
result is a theoretical and empirical tool kit better able to measure
the developmental status of any living community. Ranging widely to
explore critical issues in the history of science - order, causality,
progress, laws - the book sets forth a coherent theoretical framework
for ecology. A challenge to existing Newtonian and Darwinian paradigms,
Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective demonstrates that a theoretically
reshaped science of ecology, better suited to portraying the dynamics of
the natural world, can be a more effective means of ensuring its health.