On Order and Randomness: A View from the Edge of Chaos

Abstract: The recognition of the agency of the knower has enormously enriched our understanding of knowledge production. There is a growing realization that what we know about how we know affects our interpretation of reality. This realization informs the perspective of this paper. As a case study, the paper looks at the problem of randomness vs. determinism. It argues that this problem is not intrinsic to nature but is rather a product of the epistemological approach that does not pay attention to the process of the construction of knowledge. In contrast to the current one-sided solutions of the problem that represent reality as either random or deterministic, this paper argues that reality is neither random nor deterministic. Neither randomness nor determinism exists on its own. Rather, randomness and determinism are ways in which reality appears to us as a result of a one-sided view of the relationship between systems and subsystems in the process of construction.