The Studies Of The Thought Of Path Dependence Upon The Perspectives Of Philosophy Of Complexity

This thesis first systematically expounds the background of the theory and social economy why the concept of path dependence comes into being, upon the perspectives of complexity of philosophy and investigation into a good great deal of literatures related to the research of the idea and concept of path dependence. From the standpoint of philosophy of science, this paper differentiates and analyzes the relationships and differences between the concept of path dependence and other terms of complexity, including dissipative structure, chaos, bifurcation, catastrophe , simulative annealing , complex adaptive systems ,fitness landscapes, self-organized criticality ,and self-organization; then it answers the question of "why we need the concept of path dependence" and , reviews it under the big background of the movement of complexity sciences. Furthermore, Chapter 3 makes Case Analyses , concerning nuclear energy technology; computer technology,and video mode technology.Because the concept of path dependence has- been introduced into the research of the change of institutions and technology from the perspective of economics, and expounded sufficiently, we have no reason to neglect this trend of development of the concept and thought of path dependence. After case analyses, we investigate its application and development in the domain of institutional change. AS a result, we find, the thought of path dependence and evolutionary game theory penetrates into one another .In virtue of the analyzing tool of evolutionary game theory , in the contemporary era, social sciences have been able to decode the path dependence mechanism of institutional change and microcosmic dynamical mechanism .On the other hand, from the perspective of the change of technology, the present research finds that the path dependence origins from increasing returns, which origins from the endogeneous growth of knowledge. At the end of the paper, based on the above findings, we provide certain implications of path dependence research for the study of complexity philosophy, and even the philosophy of science in general:First of all, this thesis reveals the significance of the thought of path dependence for the study of philosophy of complexity. The concept of path dependence enriches our understanding of the characteristics of the evolutionary behavior of complex systems, especially, against the big contemporary background of large scale transition of social systems in oriental camps, offers us a new reflection on the institutional changes. It is helpful for us to eliminate a superstition of absolute unbounded rationality and infatuation to the instrumental rationality of constructivtism. Acting as a new metaphorical term among the clusters of complexity concepts , the concept of path dependence emphasizes the significance of the time factor in the process of he evolutionary behavior of complex systems, historical hysteresis effects(positive feedback and the danger of lock-in) and ,the characteristic of non- determinism( multiple equilibria).Furthermore, this research displays the significance of the thought of path dependence for the study of philosophy of sciences. Hence, we may reach the following conclusions : (1)the concept of path dependence is not only the concept of economics, but also abundance of scientific meaning, alike the concepts of complexity, such as dissipative structure, chaos, bifurcation, catastrophe , simulative annealing , complex adaptive systems ,fitness landscapes, self-organized criticality ,and self-organization; it is a new discovery of sciences during the movement of complexity sciences today; (2)upon the perspectives of growth of "paradigm" of sciences, the thought of path dependence and evolutionary game theory penetrates each other, according to the latest working papers of path dependence, which also employ evolutionary game theory as an analytical tool, they could be integrated into an unified scientific paradigm. Maybe game theory and complexity theory are one thing in essence fr...