The underlying idea and motive for the book is that the notion of
complexity may humanize the social sciences, may conceive the complex
human being as more human, and turn reality as assumed in our doing
social science into a more complex, that is a richer reality for all.
The main focus of this book is on new thinking in complexity, with
complexity to be taken as derived from the Latin word complexus: 'that
which is interwoven.'
The trans-disciplinary approach advocated here will be
trans-disciplinary in two ways: firstly, by going beyond the separate
disciplines within the fields of both natural sciences and social
sciences, and, secondly, by going beyond the separate cultures of the
natural sciences and of the social sciences and humanities.