From Simplicity to Complexity

"Information, Interaction, Emergence: A Possible Access to the Conceptual Order of Reality" was the topic of the second symposium on complex systems at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), University of Bielefeld. Physicists, chemists, biologists, and philosophers of science try to decode natures pathways from simple to more complex systems. The potentiality of matter or material systems leading to change and actuality is demonstrated by phenomena which occur in very different fields ranging from elementary physics, cosmology, chemistry, materials science, biology to relevant philosophical aspects. Only the joint efforts of experimental scientists and philosophers can offer a reasonable chance of success in mastering the highly complicated process of research in the science of complexity.