Theory and Decision Library A:

4 primary works

The Dynamics and Evolution of Social Systems

by Jurgen Kluver

Published 31 July 2000

When I started with this book several years ago I originally intended to write an introduction to mathematical systems theory for social scientists. Yet the more I thought about systems theory on the one side and theoretical sociology on the other the more I became convinced that the classical mathematical tools are not very well suited for the problems of sociology. Then I became acquainted with the researches on complex systems by the Santa Fe Institute and in particular with cellular automata, Boolean networks and genetic algorithms. These mathematically very simple but extremely efficient tools are, in my opinion, very well appropriate for modeling social dynamics. Therefore I tried to reformulate several classical problems of theoretical sociology in terms of these formal systems and outline new possibilities for a mathematical sociology which is able to join immediately on the great traditions of theoretical sociology. The result is this book; whether I succeeded with it is of course up to the readers. As the readers will perceive, the book could not have been written by me alone but only by the joint labors of the computer group at the Interdisciplinary Center of Research in Higher Education at the University of Essen. The members of the group, Christina Stoica, Jom Schmidt and Ralph Kier, are named in several subchapters as co-authors. Yet even more important than their contributions to this book were the permanent discussions with them and their patience with my new and very speculative ideas. Many thanks.

An Essay Concerning Sociocultural Evolution

by Jurgen Kluver

Published 31 July 2002

Writing about sociocultural evolution is always a complicated enterprise, because the subject is not only difficult in a scientific way but also in a political one. In particular since the events of September 11, 2001 the debates about the differences between cultures and their evolutionary developments have left the fields of pure scientific research once and for all. However, there have probably never been scientific discourses that did not touch the realms of political discussions - Darwin, Marx, the atomic physicists and the recent debates about genetic engineering are just a few examples. The aim of this book is not to take part in these debates but it is written as a contribution to the foundations of evolutionary theories in the social sciences. The readers will have to judge if I have succeeded with it. Perhaps essays like this one will help to clarify the problems we all have to face just now in regard to intercultural discourses. Theoretically and mathematically grounded insights into cultural development as the source of many political problems will not solve to how to deal with them them immediately but may serve as signposts in the long run.

On Communication. An Interdisciplinary and Mathematical Approach

by Jurgen Kluver and Christina Kluver

Published 1 January 2007

This book offers a radical new theoretical approach for the understanding of communication. The theory is operationalized by the application of certain computer programs, namely Soft Computing programs like cellular automata and artificial neural nets. In many examples the authors demonstrate how it is possible to model and analyze communicative processes, such as social combined with cognitive ones.

Social Understanding

by Jurgen Kluver and Christina Kluver

Published 27 December 2010

The operation of understanding is the fundamental methodical procedure of hermeneutics and is usually seen as contradiction to scientific explanation by the usage of mathematical models. Yet understanding is the basic way in which humans organize their everyday practice, namely by understanding other people and social situations. In this book the authors demonstrate how an integration of hermeneutical understanding and scientific explanation can be done via the construction of suited geometrical models with neural networks of processes of understanding. In this sense the authors develop some kind of mathematical hermeneutics.
Connecting links for the integration of the two methodical poles are the developments of particular models of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which are able to perform certain tasks of understanding.