[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# The Architecture of Complexity

## Details

**Authors** Herbert A. Simon

**Year** 1962

**Publisher** Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society

**Discipline** Philosophy

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27922-5_23) 
10.1007/978-3-642-27922-5_23

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

Explores the natural hierarchical structures in the universe.

### What they found (results)

Empirically a large proportion of the complex systems we observe in nature exhibit hierarchic structure. On theoretical grounds we could expect complex systems to be hierarchies in a world in which complexity had to evolve from simplicity

## Commentary

### In short

The structure of Part-Whole Systems are not only found in Nature but also in the Mind.

### In more detail

Nobel Laureate, Herbert Simon explains, “Empirically a large proportion of the complex systems we observe in nature exhibit hierarchic structure. On theoretical grounds we could expect complex systems to be hierarchies in a world in which complexity had to evolve from simplicity.” Complexity is born of simple rules and the collective dynamics of interactions among agents. The emergent properties of a system yield system-scale boundaries which, when nested, lead to hierarchical organization. At its core, hierarchy of any kind across physical, chemical, biological, psychological, and sociological organizations, is simply a nested part-whole structure. Although, as Simon explains, this hierarchy is empirically verifiable, it is so basal to the structure of nature itself that it is nearly an a priori principle. Part-whole Systems exist in nature. But they also exist in our mind. Sometimes our conceptual hierarchies appear to align with nature (as the basic disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, ecology, and sociology seem to confirm) and sometimes they do not (as numerous flawed taxonomies such as Bloom’s and Maslow’s and the Species Concept have shown). In any case, the structure of Part-Whole Systems are not only found in Nature but also in the Mind.

Revisiting Leonhard Euler and the ubiquity of networks in mind and nature, it is easy to see that nodes in a network are part and whole. Any network (in mind or in nature) is therefore a part-whole System. But more importantly, DSRP Theory tells us that any one of those nodes (indeed any one of those relationships (i.e., “edges”) has the potential to be a system and usually is. Take a simple example of a social network or an ecological network. Each of the nodes in that network are complex part-whole Systems themselves. Not only is the network itself a part-whole System, one can imagine that inside each and every node, there exists a network of lesser, equal, or greater complexity - comprised of parts and wholes.

Humans naturally systematize things by breaking them down into parts and wholes automatically, which often leads to the creation of "groupings" or what we often erroneously call "categories." However, categories require something else: a Perspective.

**Patterns it shows** S

**How to cite this** Herbert A. Simon (1962). The Architecture of Complexity. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.