THE ROLE OF COMPLEXITY, UNCERTAINTY AND IRREVERSIBILITY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MODELS

Complexity, uncertainty and irreversibility are notions generated in natural sciences, where they have induced a change of scientific models, in spite of initial misunderstandings and rejections. Considering that complexity, uncertainty and irreversibility are characteristic for business activities and life in modern society, this paper, while using the insights of natural sciences, attempts to (re)construct their role in social sciences, especially economics and economic models. It is difficult to properly quantify these indicators, a fact which often led to explanations that treated them as anomalies, while they were excluded from scientific models. It is therefore not surprising that answers given to economic questions often did not contain these variables and were consequently often paradoxical. Complexity, uncertainty and irreversibility are indicators suitable for the information age, and were not utilized in the terminology and models of the industrial age and classical science. By generalizing and connecting contemporary insights of natural sciences with systems theory and chaos theory it is easier to answer questions asked within social sciences, and especially economics.