Volume 10 · Number 1 · Pages 16–23
Second-Order Science: Logic, Strategies, Methods

Stuart A. Umpleby

Log in to download the full text for free

> Citation > Similar > References > Add Comment

Abstract

Context: Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that deals with methods, foundations, and implications of science. It is a theory of how to create scientific knowledge. Presently, there is widespread agreement on how to do science, namely conjectures, ideally in the form of a mathematical model, and refutations, testing the model using empirical evidence. Problem: Many social scientists are using a conception of science created for the physical sciences. Expanding philosophy of science so that it more successfully encompasses social systems would create new avenues of inquiry. Two dimensions could be added to philosophy of science: the amount of attention paid to the observer and the amount of impact of a theory on the system described. Method: My approach is to illuminate underlying assumptions. I claim that there are at least three epistemologies and that they can be combined to form a more robust conception of knowledge and of how to do research. There are at least four models and four basic elements (i.e., ideas, groups, events, variables) being used by (social) scientists. Results: The article identifies the logical propositions underlying second-order science. It suggests strategies for developing second-order science. And it describes several methods that can be used to practice second-order science, including how past theories have not only described but also changed the phenomenon being studied. Implications: The task for members of the scientific community, particularly social scientists, is to practice second-order science and to develop further its theories and methods. A practical implication is to accept methods for acting as well as theories as a contribution to science, since methods explicitly define the role of an observer/ participant. Constructivist content: The paper is an extension of the work of Heinz von Foerster and other second-order cyberneticians.

Key words: Philosophy of science, epistemology, models, descriptions, cybernetics.

Citation

Umpleby S. A. (2014) Second-order science: Logic, strategies, methods. Constructivist Foundations 10(1): 16–23. http://constructivist.info/10/1/016

Export article citation data: Plain Text · BibTex · EndNote · Reference Manager (RIS)

Similar articles

Müller K. H. (2011) The Two Epistemologies of Ernst von Glasersfeld
Umpleby S. A. (2016) Second-Order Cybernetics as a Fundamental Revolution in Science
Riegler A. & Quale A. (2010) Editorial: Can Radical Constructivism Become a Mainstream Endeavor?
Kravchenko A. V. (2020) A Critique of Barbieri’s Code Biology
Larochelle M. & Désautels J. (2009) Constructivism and the “Great Divides”

References

Acemoglu D. & Robinson J. A. (2012) Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity and poverty. Crown Publishers, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Ackoff R. L. (1981) Creating the corporate future: Plan or be planned for. Wiley, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Ashby W. R. (1952) Design for a brain: The origin of adaptive behavior. Chapman & Hall, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Ashby W. R. (1962) Principles of the self-organizing system. In: Foerster H. von & Zopf G. W. Jr. (eds.) Principles of self-organization. Pergamon, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Barnosky A. D., Hadly E. A., Bascompte J., Berlow E. L., Brown J. H., Fortelius M., Getz W. M., Harte J., Hastings A., Marquet P. A., Martinez N. D., Mooers A., Roopnarine P., Vermeij G., Williams J. W., Gillespie R., Kitzes J., Marshall C., Matzke N., Mindell D. P., Revilla E. & Smith A. B. (2012) Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere. Nature 486: 52–58. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Bateson G. (1970) Form, substance, and difference. General Semantics Bulletin 37: 221–245. Reprinted in: Bateson G., Steps to an ecology of mind. Ballatine, New York: 448–466. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Bateson M. C. (2004) Learning in layers. In: Bateson M. C., Willing to learn: Passages of personal discovery. Steerforth Press, Hanover NH: 250–262. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Beer S. (1985) Diagnosing the system for organizations. Wiley, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Beinhocker E. D. (2013) Reflexivity, complexity, and the nature of social science. Journal of Economic Methodology 20(4): 330–342. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Berger P. L. & Luckmann T. (1966) The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Doubleday, Garden City NY. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Bertalanffy L. von (1976) General system theory: Foundations, development, applications. Revised Edition. Braziller, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Bohr N. (1920) Über die Serienspektra der Elemente. Zeitschrift für Physik 2(5): 423–478. English translation in: Bohr N. (1976) Collected works. Volume 3: The Correspondence Principle (1918–1923) Edited by L. Rosenfeld and J. Rud Nielsen. North-Holland, Amsterdam: 241–282. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Boyd J. R. (1976) Destruction and creation. US Army Command and General Staff College. http://www.goalsys.com/books/documents/DESTRUCTION_AND_CREATION.pdf
Brand S., Bateson G. & Mead M. (1976) For God’s sake, Margaret: Conversation with Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. CoEvolutionary Quarterly 10: 32–44. http://www.oikos.org/forgod.htm
Chalmers D. J. (2010) The character of consciousness. Oxford University Press, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Checkland P. (1999) Systems thinking, systems practice. Wiley, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Clarke D. M. (2006) Descartes: A biography. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Comte A. (1856) A general view of positivism. London. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Cooperrider D. L. & Whitney D. (2005) Appreciative inquiry: A positive revolution in change. Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, CA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
de Beer E. S. (1950) The earliest fellows of the Royal Society. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 7(2): 172–192. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Debreu G. (1959) Theory of value. Wiley, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Deming E. (1986) Out of the crisis. MIT Press, Cambridge MA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Descartes R., Cottingham J., Stoothoff R. & Murdoch D. (1985) The philosophical writings of Descartes. Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Edge H. (2002) Dualism and the self: A cross-cultural perspective. In: Steinkamp F. (ed.) Parapsychology, philosophy and the mind. McFarland, Jefferson NC: 33–56. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Farias I. & Ossandon J. (eds.) (2006) Observando sistemas. Nuevas apropiaciones y usos de la teoría de Niklas Luhmann. RiL editores, Fundación Soles, Santiago de Chile. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Faye J. (2014) Explanation revisited. In: Lissack M. & Graber A. (2014) Modes of explanation: Affordances for action and prediction. Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 233–240. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Ferreiros J. & Gray J. (eds.) (2006) Architecture of modern mathematics. Essays in history and philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Fischer M. & Marcus G. (1999) Anthropology as cultural critique: An experimental moment in the human sciences. Second edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Foerster H. von (1971) Computing in the semantic domain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 184: 239–241. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Foerster H. von (1974) Notes on an epistemology for living things. In: Morin E. & Piattelli-Palmerini M. (eds.) L’unité de l’homme: Invariants biologiques et universaux culturel. Editions du Seul, Paris. Reprinted in: Foerster H. von (1981) Observing Systems. Intersystems Publications, Seaside CA: 258–265. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Foerster H. von (1991) Ethics and second-order cybernetics. In: Ray Y. & Prieur B. (eds.) Système, ethique, perspectives en therapie familiale. ESF editeur, Paris: 41–55. Republished in: Foerster H. von (2003) Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition. Springer, New York: 287–304. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Foerster H. von (2003) Understanding understanding: Essays on cybernetics and cognition. Springer, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Freeman R. E., Harrison J. S., Wicks A. C., Parmar B. L. & de Colle S. (2010) Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Gillett C. & Loewer B. (eds.) (2001) Physicalism and its discontents. Cambridge University Press, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Glaser B. G. & Strauss A. L. (1967) The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Glasersfeld E. von (1995) Radical Constructivism: A way of knowing and learning. Falmer Press, London. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Goetz S. & Taliaferro C. (2008) Naturalism. Eerdmans, Cambridge UK. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Greenblatt S. (2011) The swerve: How the world became modern. Norton, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Greenwald B. C. & Stiglitz J. (1990) Asymmetric information and the new theory of the firm: Financial constraints and risk behavior. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge MA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Guenther G. (1967) Time, timeless logic and self-referential systems. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 138: 396–406. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Hornung B. R. (1988) Grundlagen einer problemfunktionalistischen Systemtheorie gesellschaftlicher Entwicklung, Sozialwissenschaftliche Theoriekonstruktion mit qualitativen, computergestützten Verfahren. Peter Lang, Bern. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Hornung B. R. (2006) El paradigma sociocibernético, Conceptos para la investigación de sistemas sociales complejos. In: Marcuello Servós C. (ed.) Sociocibernética, Lineamientos de un paradigma. Institución “Fernando el Católico” (CSIC), Zaragoza: 41–79. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Hornung B. R. (2006) From cultural relativism to the unity of science by means of epistemological constructivism. In: Marcuello C. & Fandos J. L. (eds.) Sociological essays for a global society. Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, Zaragoza: 81–120. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Hutto D. & Myin E. (2012) Radicalizing enactivism: Basic minds without content. MIT Press, Cambridge MA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Jahoda M., Lazarsfeld P. F. & Zeisl H. (2002) Marienthal: The sociography of an unemployed community. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick. German original published in 1933. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Kahneman D. (1973) Attention and effort. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Kaletsky A. (2011) Capitalism 4.0: The birth of a new economy in the aftermath of crisis. Public Affairs, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Keynes J. M. (1936) The general theory of employment, interest, and money. Harcourt, Brace & World, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Kjellman A. (2002) The subject-oriented approach to knowledge and the role of human consciousness. International Review of Sociology – Revue Internationale de Sociologie 12(2): 223–247. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Kjellman A. (2006) The crisis of contemporary science. Kybernetes 35(3/4): 497–521. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Koons R. C. & Bealer G. (eds.) (2010) The waning of materialism. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Krajewski W. (1977) Correspondence principle and growth of science. Reidel, Boston. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Kuhn T. S. (1962) The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Lakatos I. (1976) Proofs and refutations. The logic of mathematical discovery. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Landsberger H. A. (1958) Hawthorne revisited. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Lefebvre V. A. (1977) The structure of awareness: Toward a symbolic language of human reflexion. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills CA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Lefebvre V. A. (1982) Algebra of conscience: A comparative analysis of Western and Soviet ethical systems. Reidel, Boston MA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Lissack M. & Graber A. (2014) Modes of explanation: Affordances for action and prediction. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Loefgren L. (1962) Kinematic and tesselation models of self-repair. In: Bernard E. E. & Kare M. R. (eds.) Biological prototypes and synthetic systems. Plenum Press, New York: 342–369. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Loefgren L. (1968) An axiomatic explanation of complete self-reproduction. Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 30: 415–425. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Luhmann N. (1987) Soziale Systeme. Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. English translation: Luhmann N. (1995) Social systems. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Luhmann N. (1989) Ecological communication. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. German original published in 1986. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Luhmann N. (1990) The autopoiesis of social systems. In: Luhmann N., Essays on self-reference. Columbia University Press, New York: 1–20. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Luhmann N. (1993) Deconstruction as second-order observing. New Literary History 24: 763–782. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Mancosu P. (ed.) (2008) The philosophy of mathematical practice. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Mannheim K. (1960) Ideology and utopia: An introduction to the sociology of knowledge. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Marx K. (2002) Theses on Feuerbach. Translated by Cyril Smith. Originally written in 1845. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm
Maturana H. R. & Varela F. J. (1980) Autopoiesis and cognition. Reidel, Dordrecht. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
McCloskey D. N. (1985) The rhetoric of economics. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
McIntyre L. (2014) The scientific attitude toward explanation. In: Lissack M. & Graber A. (2014) Modes of explanation: Affordances for action and prediction. Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 229–232. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
McSherry W., Cash K. & Ross L. (2004) Meaning of spirituality: Implications for nursing practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing 13(8): 934–941. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Medvedeva T. A. & Umpleby S. A. (2004) Four methods for describing systems with examples of how management is changing in the U. S. and Russia. In: Trappl R. (ed.) Cybernetics and Systems ‘04. Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, Vienna: 375–379. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Mitroff I. & Blankenship V. (1973) On the methodology of the holistic experiment: an approach to the conceptualization of large-scale social experiments. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 4: 339–353. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Moore G. E. (1965) Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Electronics 38(8): 114–117 ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Morgan G. (ed.) (1983) Beyond method: Strategies for social research, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills CA. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Müller K. H. & Riegler A. (2014) A new course of action. Constructivist Foundations 10(1): 1–6. http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/10/1/001.editorial
Müller K. H. (1998) The epigenetic research program: A transdisciplinary approach to the dynamics of knowledge, society and beyond. Sociological Series No. 24. Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Müller K. H. (2011) The new science of cybernetics: The evolution of living research designs. Volume II: Theory. Edition Echoraum, Vienna: 277–316. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Myers G. (1990) Writing biology: Texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Neumann J. von (1951) The general and logical theory of automata. In: Jeffress L. A. (ed.) Cerebral mechanisms in behavior: The Hixon Symposium. Wiley, New York: 1–31. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Neumann J. von (1966) Theory of self-reproducing automata. Edited and completed by A. W. Burks. University of Illinois Press, Urbana IL. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Nordenfelt L. & Edgar A. (2005) The four notions of dignity. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults 6(1): 17–21. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Piaget J. (1930) The child’s conception of physical causality. Kegan Paul, London. French original: Piaget J. (1927) La causalité physique chez l’enfant. F. Alcan, Paris. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Pias C. (2003) Cybernetics: The Macy conferences 1946–1953. Diaphanes, Zurich. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Popper K. R. (1957) The poverty of historicism. Beacon Press, Boston. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Popper K. R. (1967) Quantum mechanics without “the observer.” In: Bunge M. (ed.) Quantum theory and reality. Springer, Berlin: 7–44. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Popper K. R. (1972) Objective knowledge: An evolutionary approach. Clarendon Press, Boston. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Popper K. R. (1989) Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge. Fifth edition. Routledge, New York. Originally published in 1963. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Riegler A. & Douven I. (2009) Extending the Hegselmann–Krause model III: From single beliefs to complex belief states. Episteme 6(2): 145–163. http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/riegler/56
Riegler A. (2001) Towards a radical constructivist understanding of science. Foundations of Science 6(1–3): 1–30. http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/riegler/20
Rousseau D. & Wilby J. M. (2014) Moving from disciplinarity to transdisciplinarity in the service of thrivable systems. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 31(5): 666–677. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Rousseau D. (2014) Foundations and a framework for future waves of systemic inquiry. In: Proceedings of the 22nd European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR 2014) BCSSS, Vienna: 428–434. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Rousseau D. (2014) Reconciling spirituality with the naturalistic sciences: A systems-philosophical perspective. Journal for the Study of Spirituality 4(2): 174–189. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Schlick M. (1925) Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre. Second edition. Springer, Berlin. Originally published in 1918. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Schon D. (1995) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Arena, Aldershot UK. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Searle J. R. (1995) The construction of social reality. Allen Lane, London. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Shneiderman B. (2008) Science 2.0. Science 319(5868): 1349–1350. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Simon H. A. (1957) Administrative behavior: A study of decision-making processes in administrative organization. Macmillan, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Soros G. (1987) The alchemy of finance: Reading the mind of the market. Simon and Schuster, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Soros G. (1988) The alchemy of finance. Simon & Schuster, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Soros G. (2013) Fallibility, reflexivity, and the human uncertainty principle. Journal of Economic Methodology 20(4): 309–329. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Sterner B. (2014) Explanation and pluralism. In: Lissack M. & Graber A. (2014) Modes of explanation: Affordances for action and prediction. Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 249–256 ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Strawson G. (2006) Panpsychism? Reply to commentators with a celebration of Descartes. Special issue on realistic monism. Journal of Consciousness Studies 13(10–11): 184–280. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Umpleby S. A. & Oyler A. (2007) A global strategy for human development: The work of the Institute of Cultural Affairs. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 24: 645–653. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Umpleby S. A. & Rakicevik G. (2008) Adopting service learning in universities around the world. Journal of the World Universities Forum 1(2): 39–48. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Umpleby S. A. (1990) Strategies for regulating the global economy. Cybernetics and Systems 21: 99–108. Originally published in 1989. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Umpleby S. A. (1997) Cybernetics of conceptual systems. Cybernetics and Systems 28(8): 635–652. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Umpleby S. A. (2002) Should knowledge of management be organized as theories or as methods? Janus Head. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts 5(1): 181–195. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Umpleby S. A. (2011) Second-order economics as an example of second-order cybernetics. Cybernetics and Human Knowing. 18(3–4): 173–176. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Umpleby S. A., Anbari F. T. & Müller K. H. (2007) Highly innovative research teams: The case of BCL. In: Müller A. & Müller K. H. (eds.) An unfinished revolution? Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory. Echoraum, Vienna: 181–202. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Van Bendegem J. P. (2014) The impact of the philosophy of mathematical practice on the philosophy of mathematics. In: Léna S., Zwart S., Lynch M. & Vincent Israel-Jost V. (eds.) Science after the practice turn in the philosophy, History, and social studies of science. Routledge, London: 215–226. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Van Kerkhove B. & Van Bendegem J. P. (eds.) (2007) Perspectives on mathematical practices: Bringing together philosophy of mathematics, sociology of mathematics, and mathematics education. Springer, Dordrecht. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Vygotsky L. (1997) Educational psychology. St. Lucie Press, Delray Beach FL. Originally published in 1926. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Wallis S. (2014) Evaluating explanations through their conceptual structures. In: Lissack M. & Graber A. (2014) Modes of explanation: Affordances for action and prediction. Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 197–202. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Walras L. (1954) Elements of pure economics. Allen and Unwin, London. Originally published in 1877. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Whyte W. F. (1993) Street corner society: The social structure of an Italian slum. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Originally published in 1943. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Wiener N. (1948) Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine. John Wiley, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Wilby J. M., Rousseau D., Midgley G., Drack M., Rousseau J. & Zimmermann R. (2015) Philosophical foundations for the modern systems movement. In: Proceedings of the 17th Conversation of the International Federation for Systems Research, St. Magdalena, Linz, Austria, 27 April–2 May 2014, in press. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Young R. M. (1977) Science is social relations. Radical Science Journal 5: 65–129. http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/sisr1.html

Comments: 0

To stay informed about comments to this publication and post comments yourself, please log in first.