The Paradigm of Complexity in Sociology: Epistemological and Methodological Implications

Abstract

This article seeks to present a unified frame of what we might call a “paradigm of complexity ” from the definition of Thomas S. Kuhn, i.e., as a paradigm that incorporates both a worldview and models of scientific realizations. This dual nature of the paradigm of complexity is expressed by Edgar Morin with the distinction drawn between a more epistemological “general complexity ” (complex thinking, second order cybernetics , autopoiesis , dissipative structures , etc.) and a more methodological “restricted complexity ” (complex adaptive systems , multi-agents systems , cellular automata , etc.). We pose the respective limitations of both approaches and the need for their integration into a common paradigm of complexity that incorporates inseparably philosophy and science. In the second part of our article we study the implications of the paradigm of complexity in sociology . We propose, as examples, a number of approaches to the social , both epistemological and methodological, from the perspective of the “general complexity ” and from the perspective of the “restricted complexity ”.