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How has Systems Theory changed how you think? Is there a good book you recommend on the topic? Thank you!
by pradn 2y ago
How has Systems Theory changed how you think? Is there a good book you recommend on the topic? Thank you!
- gond 2y agoI made a mistake here, leading astray. It's second-order cybernetics, not second order systems theory. I melted the two in my head, reason is that (Social) Systems Theory according to Niklas Luhmann [1] incorporates several parts of second order cybernetics (most of the people mentioned before show up there) and blends it all together to a point where I have difficulties to distinguish the separate parts. This is all not 'new' in the literal sense. Luhmann died in the late 90s. I tried to come up with a spot-on-book of Luhmann, but that lead to nothing. It's all spread out (papers and books) as far as I know. There is a (transcribed) lecture given in 1992, which may come close, but I couldn't find a translated version of it. One of the parts which hit home for me was the introduction of a differenciated form of distinctiveness, in turn partly enabled by the introduction of an observer, and observation in general. Heinz von Foerster gave an often cited sentence which I think fits the part, albeit Luhmann gurus will probably moan my simplification : "Objectivity is the delusion that observations could be made without an observer." Apart from that, sorry for not being more helpful here. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann