Cartesian cut, Heisenberg cut, and the concept of complexity

It is discussed why and how epistemological arguments are helpful for systematic and formal progress toward a proper understanding of complex systems, beyond their phenomenological features. Two crucial notions in this context are those of the Cartesian cut between the material world and its non‐material counterpart, and the Heisenberg cut between an object and its environment. Corresponding to the issues of model building and measurement, the two cuts are of utmost but most often implicit significance for modern science. Taking them into account explicitly can contribute to a resolution of certain problems in the study of complex systems. An immediate application refers to two fundamentally different concepts of complexity which are related to two fundamentally different concepts of information.