BRIDGING REDUCTIONISM AND HOLISM——MULTI-SCALE METHODOLOGY WITH APPLICATIONS TO PARTICLE-FLUID SYSTEMS

(整期优先)网络出版时间:2005-01-11
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Whilesciencecontinuestoextendtotwoextremes-micro-scaletowardsdimensionsevensmallerthanelementalparticlesandmega-scaleevenbeyondtheuniverse,onerecognizesthatreductionismisnotsufficienttosolvemanyproblemsweencounterinengineering,whicharelikelycharacterizedbynonlinearity,nonequilibdumanddissipativemulti-scalestructures.Ontheotherhand,thecommonfeaturesofthesenonlinearsystems,suchasbifurcation,statemultiplicityandself-organization,haveattractedmuchattention,leadingtotheapproachesoftheso-calledcomplexitysciencewhichhasbecomeafocusnotonlyinnaturalscienceandengineeringscience,butalsoinsocialscience.