SECOND ORDER SCIENCE:REVITALIZING THE TRADITION

Stuart A. UmplebyDepartment of Management

The George Washington UniversityWashington, DC

A current transition to reflexive knowledge

• Many people have contributed to the current change in thinking

• Heinz von Foerster, second order cybernetics• Vladimir Lefebvre, ethical cognition• George Soros, reflexivity theory in economics• Karl Mueller, second order research• Louis Kauffman, knot theory• Klaus Krippendorff, the reflexive turn

Heinz von Foerster (1911-2002)

George Soros

Karl Mueller

Vladimir Lefebvre

Louis Kauffman

Klaus Krippendorff

The basic idea

• Science can be expanded by adding the observer to what is observed and considering the co-evolution of theories and society

• We would shift our thinking from viewing science as creating descriptions of systems to viewing science as an active part of social systems

World

1

2

3

ObserverDescription

Philosophers vs. scientists

• Philosophers, in my experience, have a broad and multi-faceted conception of philosophy of science

• Practicing scientists have a narrower, rule-bound conception of philosophy of science

• Many social scientists seek to imitate their conception of physics

• Objective descriptions are thought to be the goal

How we think about social science• It is easy to accept that theories affect society • We create theories because we hope that

people will accept them, act on them and society will perhaps operate better

• However, when scientists conduct research, they usually assume that theories do not affect what is studied

• We act this way because we think this is the way to create objective descriptions

Four models underlying science

• Linear causality – many statistical methods are available, e.g., correlation and multiple regression

• Circular causality – inherent in regulation, system dynamics models

• Self-organization – Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, complex adaptive systems

• Reflexivity – von Foerster, Soros, Lefebvre

Reflexivity

• Observe, decide, act, observe…• A circular process• An observer is included• Operates on two levels of analysis –

observation and participation

The task of science is to produce accurate descriptions

The observer should be included within the domain of science

Social systems consist of observers who also participate

Four ways of describing systems

• Variables – physics and economics• Ideas – anthropology and psychology• Groups – sociology and political science• Events – history, law

  

Ideas

Variables Groups

Events

 A model of social change using four methods for describing

systems

  

Ideas

Variables Groups

Events

 A reflexive theory operates at two levels

A more holistic view of social systems

• The current emphasis on disciplines leads to overspecialized points of view

• We need to make use of the knowledge from several fields in order to create the knowledge that we need to understand complex systems

The importance of purpose

• Is the purpose of science to create universal general knowledge or to help human beings function effectively in nature and society?

• Probably science has both purposes, but adaptation of the individual and society is the larger purpose

• Methods for creating universal general knowledge should not prevent us from creating knowledge useful for survival

Expanding the base of knowledge for philosophy of science

• Philosophers have primarily used the method of rational criticism

• Second order science can use a wide range of methods from any discipline – computer simulation, survey research, mathematical proofs, data analysis

• Second order science can use results of research in the biological and social sciences

Philosophical principles

• Demarcation• Induction• Reflexivity• The correspondence principle

Popper’s two principles

• Demarcation – the difference between science and non-science: scientific statements must be falsifiable

• Induction – induction cannot lead to universal, general knowledge. A statement can be proven to be false, but not true

Soros’s philosophical principle

• Reflexivity – systems composed of thinking participants are different from systems composed of non-thinking participants

• The presence or absence of reflexivity serves as a criterion of demarcation between social and natural phenomena

The Correspondence Principle• Proposed by Niels Bohr when developing the

quantum theory• Any new theory should reduce to the old

theory to which it corresponds for those cases in which the old theory is known to hold

• A new dimension is required• By applying the correspondence principle to

the philosophy of science, we change not just one theory or one field but all of science

 

New philosophy of science        

An Application of the Correspondence Principle 

Old philosophy of science

Amount of attention paid to the observer

Examples of the correspondence principle

• Relativity theory – add the speed of light• The gas laws – add the diameter of gas

molecules• Amount of attention paid to the observer• The effect of a theory on the system described

Popper on second order tradition

• What we call ‘science’ is differentiated from the older myths not by being something distinct from a myth, but by being accompanied by a second-order tradition – that of critically discussing the myth

• Before, there was only the first-order tradition. A definite story was handed on. Now, there was still a story to be handed on, but with it went a silent accompanying text of a second-order character

Second order tradition (2)

• This second order tradition was the critical or argumentative attitude. It is the fundamentally important thing about scientific tradition

• Scientific myths are different from religious myths because if one adopts a critical attitude then one’s myths do become different. They change; and they change in the direction of giving a better and better account of the world – of the things which we can observe

Second order tradition (3)

• And they also challenge us to observe things which we would never have observed without these theories or myths

Revitalizing the tradition

• Perhaps second order science will revitalize tradition of science reflecting on itself

Contact Information

Prof. Stuart Umpleby Department of Management School of Business George Washington University Washington, DC 20052 USA

www.gwu.edu/~umpleby umpleby@gwu.edu

Prepared for a panel discussion of Second Order Science

University Seminar on Reflexive Systems The George Washington University Washington, DC November 26, 2014