The second half of the 20thCentury points towards a new dialogue with nature under a view that recognizes complexity and fate as constituent elements of reality. In this sense, the present article explains some of the basic principles underlying this new understanding of the world, which goes here by the name of complexity's paradigm, one that is born out of the hollows of the classical newtonian paradigm. At stake are issues like non-linearity or temporary asymmetry which distinguish living creatures as open and interactive systems, and give sense to the concept of time, even * Universidad de Barcelona (Barcelona Espanha). I rjgl O Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia I 4071 LWRPF 63 .2007 1407-426 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.64 on Fri, 22 Jul 2016 04:31:19 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 408 Janet Ortiz Galilea though until very recently science has not given enough attention to such concepts. But it is also shown how this new paradigm is pervasive across all the disciplines, whereby it requires new instruments to analyze the qualitative dimension of the real. Finally, the author of the article also claims that the acknowledgement of such complexity of the real presupposes an opening of the minds to interdisciplinarity and to a vision of the world in which the real is not seen as a mere addition of pieces, but in which each portion of the real is seen in connection with everything else and as being in constant transformation.