期刊名称：Evolutionary Psychology: an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior
印刷版ISSN：1474-7049
出版年度：2004
卷号：2
页码：1-2
出版社：Ian Pitchford, Ed.& Pub
摘要：Peter Corning wants you to know that synergy is everywhere. The center of gravity of your car is synergistic. The whirlpool in your bathtub is synergistic. Metallic alloys, drugs used in combination, the alphabet, complementary foods, symbioses and geodetic domes are synergistic¡ªand that's just the first three pages. As a scientist who studies synergy (my work is enthusiastically covered along with many others) I was disappointed by this book. To say that synergy is (nearly) everywhere is to say (nearly) nothing. It is precisely because the world is so complex that we need theories to avoid becoming overwhelmed by it. These theories are invariably simpler than the world itself. They partially succeed and their failures are used to add complexity as needed. This kind of theory building to comprehend complexity is hard work and having someone insist again and again that the world is complex is no help at all
