The Challenge of Complex Systems * From the Microscopic to the Macroscopic World ... * ... and Back Again: The Maximum Information Principle (MIP) * An Example from Physics: Thermodynamics * Application of the Maximum Information Principle to Self-Organizing Systems * The Maximum Information Principle for Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions: Determination of Order Parameters, Enslaved Modes, and Emerging Patterns * Information, Information Gain, and Efficiency of Self-Organizing Systems Close to Their Instability Points * Direct Determination of Lagrange Multipliers * Unbiased Modeling of Stochastic Processes: How to Guess Path Integrals, Fokker-Planck Equations and Langevin lto Equations * Application to Some Physical Systems * Transitions Between Behavioral Patterns in Biology. An Example: Hand Movements * Pattern Recognition * Quantum Systems * Concluding Remarks and Outlook * References * Subject Index.