The human mind is often regarded as the most complex structure in the universe. If anything could be argued to be of highercomplexity it is a collection of interacting minds: social groups and societies. Kluver argues that social cognitive complexity(see Social Cognitive Complexity)stems from the fact that such systems consist of multiple (at least two – social and cognitive) levels that are constantly at flux due to themultiple influences both between and within levels.
The complexity of the subject matter of the social sciences has made adequate description using the traditional models of mathematics and physicsdifficult. For a long time it has been argued that tools of mathematics and physics are not adequate for social processes and therefore science had to proceedalong two independent fronts that seemed irreconcilable (Snow, 1993). One approach, epitomized by such disciplines as sociology and anthropology, wascharacterized by deep insights into the nature of psychological social...
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Preparation of this article was supported by a CO3 grant from the European NEST PATHFINDER initiative.
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Nowak, A., Strawińska, U. (2009). Applications of Physics and Mathematics to Social Science, Introduction to. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3_22
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