Chapter 1. Complexity Theory: The lessons continue

Interest in Complexity Theory (CT) is growing. This is not surprising, considering the state of the modern world – its dynamism, interconnectivity, mobile populations, changing climate, pattern of unintentional consequences, space-time compression, and technological innovation. These qualities make the non-reductionist, ecological, dynamic systems view that CT affords appropriate for our post-structural times. This is not to say that CT is without antecedents in history, some of which are mentioned in the chapter. I also relate how I have come to see CT as a metatheory. A metatheory has wide, transdisciplinary implications. Nevertheless, a metatheory still warrants object theories: in the case of second language development, a theory of language and a theory of learning. These are discussed here as thirty aphorisms. Also taken up are additional lessons afforded by the theory, specifically, overcoming dualities, the need to distinguish a focal system from its environment for the purposes of investigation, and how generalizability can be achieved.