The Complexity of Human Thought

This book provides an innovative interdisciplinary approach to understanding the principles of human thinking and offers techniques concerning the solution of abstract problems and predictions based on those principles. Utilizing the concepts of complexity science, the book explains the emergence and structural elements of cognitive models underlying such diverse human behaviors as abstract thought, kindness, and selfishness. Such cognitive models allow humans to react to their present environments and make accurate and useful predictions of their futures. Those who might find this book of interest are primarily academics or professionals interested in a unique and interdisciplinary approach to cognition based on complexity science. The book may also be utilized as a supplemental class text in programs on complexity science, life science, and cognition.

About the Author

Dr. Robert Leve received his masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Maryland, specializing in child clinical psychology and clinical research. He did his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University Medical School and the Children’s Hospital, Boston. He is the author of two books, Childhood: The Study of Development and Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy: Process and Integration. His research, published in Complexity, applies the concepts of complexity science to human cognition. This interdisciplinary approach explains the methods used to solve complex abstract problems and difficulties in human prediction. Dr. Leve has applied his research to understanding the cognitive models underlying the basic human traits of kindness and selfishness and explaining the reprehensible thinking of genocides.