Complexity, Habits & Society

The notion of “complexity” is a central topic in the philosophy of science and in sociology, that aims to grasp the relationship between systems and their environment. Complexity indicates also the possibility to describe unity (system, environment, world etc.) by appealing to the distinction among elements and their relations. This possibility has been used in many different ways and has assumed a wide variety of nuances throughout history. We consider a peculiar aspect in the large debate on complexity, namely a notion of complexity that is constituted by human habitual behavior to shape individual and social daily life. This analysis is far from using functionalism namely the analysis of individual and social systems. Rather, it aims at describing important traits of human selection of relevant information by considering the function of habitual behavior in individual and social contexts.