Review by Choice Review
Written by a philosopher of science about chaos theory, this book focuses on what chaos theory is and is not. Kellert tries to cut through the hype surrounding a field with an intriguing name; he points out that most practitioners do not refer to it by that name, but rather as a study of chaotic phenomena, which he defines as "the qualitative study of unstable aperiodic behavior in deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems." He takes the reader through this definition by describing a succession of physical phenomena and related mathematical models, in keeping with his observation that there is no simple, comprehensive theory of chaotic phenomena, but rather a cluster of theoretical models, mathematical tools, and experimental techniques. At the end, Kellert explores the issue of just what kind of understanding chaos theory provides and what insights it may have for scientific understanding. The final chapter discusses the historical question as to why the study of chaotic phenomena did not achieve scientific vogue even though tools for study were available early in this century. This comfortable addition to a mathematics, philosophy, or science collection requires only an understanding of the concept of differential equations. Extensive, unannotated bibliography. General; undergraduate; graduate. D. Z. Spicer; University of Notre Dame
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
