The challenge of complexity

In our post-Cartesian times we can assume that human abilities are integrated abilities and that body, mind, language and emotion interact. We can finally open up the ‘black box’ and observe how the brain works, at least to some extent. ‘New Science’ has been developed on the basis of consilience or the unity of knowledge of the natural and social sciences and the humanities. The challenge is to describe how human beings address the complexity of life, which includes the issue of how we can move others by moving ourselves. The chapter starts from human beings and their abilities, which are determined by human nature, the environment and culture. On a sociobiological basis it proposes a holistic approach that aims to explain how human beings act and react in ever-changing surroundings. Different theses on the relationship between the individual and the species are discussed, resulting in the view of human beings as social individuals who need to go beyond the shared mind and to interact in dialogue. The Mixed Game Model is introduced as a holistic model that starts from the natural object and derives methodology from it. The object is the complex human ability of ‘competence-in-performance’, which requires an adequate methodology based on Principles of Probability. A few authentic examples are analysed in order to illustrate how different human abilities interact in language use, especially the abilities of speaking, thinking, having emotions and perceiving, and to show how they enable us to move others by moving ourselves. Keywords: emotions; integration; consilience; sociobiology; holism; the Mixed Game Model; competence-in-performance

Published online: 12 April 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/ceb.6.15wei