Why Science Does Not Get You. The Nonergodic Social World and the Limit to Measurement

Abstract

In a nonergodic (or nonrepeating) universe, evolution creates environments of great complexity whose events are beyond entailing law and parented by contingent histories. Our material context is therefore one of evental flow from one unique situation to another. The article outlines how this manifests in society, and illustrates the necessity of interpretive techniques. The current challenge of natural science is considered through a discussion of neuropsychology and psychoanalysis. The study affirms the role of natural science but argues that the hybrid, narrative and debate-led approaches of the humanities and social sciences are the most rational approaches to elucidating non-ergodic reality.

Keywords:

• Evental
• incondensable complexity
• nonergodic
• psychoanalysis
• social sciences