The Complementary Nature

This lecture comes in three "movements" and arises out of a new book (Kelso, J.A.S. & D.A. Engstrom, The Complementary Nature, to appear). The first movement explores the central role of ubiquitous "contrarities" in the history of ideas (both in philosophy and science). We refer to all such contrarities as "complementary pairs" and introduce a novel syntax with which to interpret them. The second movement explores a possible basis for complementary pairs-their formation, persistence and change-in the science of coordination dynamics (e.g., Jirsa, V.K. & Kelso, J.A.S., Eds., Coordination Dynamics: Issues and Trends, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2004). Coordination dynamics reconciles the notion of states (e.g. brain state, mental state, behavioral state, etc) with the notion of preferences and tendencies. In particular, it shows how complementary pairs such as integration~segregation, convergence~divergence, competition~cooperation, individual~collective, etc. emerge as coexisting tendencies of the coordination dynamics. Coordination dynamics also provides a putative mechanism called metastability for the creation~destruction of functional (i.e. meaningful) information. In the third and final movement two research strategies are described, namely the "complementary pairs of coordination dynamics" (CP of CD) and the "coordination dynamics of complementary pairs" (CD of CP). These strategies are now beginning to be employed as a way to discover and invent, as a didactic tool, and as a path toward cross-level and cross-field reconciliation.