Rossi, M. y Rodríguez, L. 2007. Complejidad y emergencia de la organización política. Cinta moebio 30: 245-261

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Complexity and emergence of political organization. Greek polis in Aristotle’s thought as complex system

Dr. Miguel Ángel Rossi (mrossi@lorien-sistemas.com) Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Leonardo Rodríguez (leonardo.rzoya@gmail.com)Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Abstract

The goal of this article is to contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary political theory across a conceptual link between Aristotle’s political philosophy and complex systems theory. Aristotelian doctrine of the wisdom of the multitude is connected with the concept of emergence belonging to complex systems theory. Republic or politeia is analyzed as a bottom-up regime which takes its intelligence from the foundation of society. The claim that is made here is that the meeting and deliberation process between virtually equal and free citizens allow the rise of an emergent behavior, the wisdom of the multitude as a macro-individual aggregated property. We state that city can be envisaged as a problem of organized complexity, where local actions, perceptions and interactions foster an emergent behavior; whereas the organization of the whole entails constrictions to part’s behavior. Thus, city is a complex unit which arises as political physis through an organizational process which involve a dialogic (antagonist and complementary logic) between the whole and the parts. The main conclusion is that the development of concepts that are able to travel beyond disciplinary boundaries may encourage the understanding of sociopolitical complexity.

Keywords: complexity, emergence, interdisciplinary, organization, complex system.