Steve,
Yep, that's the
book. The book is edited by Rosen, and consists of 3 chapters.
Chapter 1 is by
I.W. Richardson, titled "The Dynamics and Energetics of Complex Real Systems".
About 60 pages, I confess I have only skimmed this chapter. Energy, as a
way of understanding systems, has never interested me very much, so I haven't
found the interest to go through the details. It is fairly
technical.
The second
chapter is by Aloisius Louie and is titled "Categorical System Theory". It is
roughly 100 pages on the use of Category Theory in modelling, with some
applications to biology. Also rather technical, it reads something like a
Category Theory textbook. I knew I was in for a deep read when the
first two pages were a glossary of special
symbols, double-column and in fairly small print! To begin the
chapter, he writes: "The single greatest influence in the development of this
work is the book "Fundamentals of Measurement and Representation of Natural
Systems"...", another book heavily laden with CT formalism. Very
worthwhile for those interested in the formal application of Category Theory
to modelling.
Chapter 3 is the
one by Rosen, titled "Organisms as Causal Systems Which Are Not Mechanisms: An
Essay into the Nature of Complexity". About 40 pages, it consists
of the following sections:
I.
Introduction
II. Biology and
Other sciences
III. Relational
Biology
IV. The
(M,R)-Systems
V. A First
Attempt at Realization of (M,R)-Systems
VI. The
Modelling Relation
VII. The
Newtonian Paradigm
VII. Mappings
and "System Laws" in the Newtonian Paradigm
IX.
Causality
X. Complex
Systems
XI. An Alternate
Approach: "Information"
XII.
Conclusion
Strictly
speaking, I don't think there is anything in here that cannot be found
elsewhere in other books or papers, except perhaps for section V (and that may
be only because I simply haven't read it elsewhere yet). However, some of the
layout and the explanations in this chapter I find to be very helpful and
concise, so I often find myself going back to this book.
Let me know if
you want more details.
Regards,
Tim