Simple Components

It has often been wondered if it is a human tendency to simplify things, or to do the exact opposite, create a complicated version of situations. As Gestalt psychology suggests, there may be a tendency to see the whole rather than its individual parts. A complex whole, in relation to the statement above, is perceived as a generalization or a stereotyping of elements, which have a certain similarity. Simple components, on the other hand, are perceived as the breaking down of a complex whole into more specific elements. This essay will argue that effectively, there are some areas of knowledge, which have a tendency to reduce a complex whole into a simple component, in other words, they generalize and stereotype, whilst there are other areas of

Stan Gudder, an American mathematician, once said, “The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple” . Mathematics is known as the “branch of science concerned with number, quantity and space, either as abstract ideas or as applied to physics, engineering and other subjects” . In this case, it is believed that mathematics, effectively, does reduce complex wholes to simple components. This could be supported by the large amount of formulas, equations and especially symbols created in order to ‘simplify’ the process of reaching the answer and solution to a mathematical problem. In addition, mathematical symbols such as “∞” which represent infinite numbers; these symbols support the idea that mathematics does effectively convert complex wholes, such as infinite numbers, into a simple component. This could lead to the following knowledge question: to what extent do mathematical symbols support the statement above when claiming that some areas of knowledge reduce a complex whole to a simple

As mentioned earlier, the area of knowledge, social sciences, have various derived subjects, one of them is economics. This social science “studies how individuals, government, firms and nations make choices on allocating scarce resources to satisfy their unlimited wants” . Economics can be portrayed as a combination of both statements made above due to the fact that it actually has some cases where it converts a complex whole into a simple component or vice versa. A clear example could be the fact that it reduces a complex whole such as elasticities into a simple formula: PED=((%ΔQD))/((%ΔP)). This example shows how “the simple is the source of the complex” . Whilst on the other hand, simple components such as demand and supply side policies, unemployment, inflation, distribution of income and so on, are actually integrated in order to create a complex whole known as macro-economics. The statement made previously could be supported by the internal assessment we are required to do for our Economics higher-level course. In order to complete the task we have to find a complex whole such as pollution, and explain the simple components that make up this problem and the several ways to find a solution to the complex whole. Both economic examples happen to illustrate the fact that the area of knowledge of social