STRATEGIES FOR WINNING ACCEPTANCE OF SECOND ORDER CYBERNETICS
by Stuart A. Umpleby
Department of Management Science
George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
Guest Scholar, Summer 1991
Institute for Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence
University of Vienna
Freyung 6, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
August 20, 1991
Presented at the International Symposium on
Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics
Baden-Baden, Germany, August 12-18, 1991
ABSTRACT
In the last two decades an intellectual movement associated with
the term "second order cybernetics" has taken shape within the
systems theory and cybernetics community. The ideas associated
with this movement promise to have an important impact on the
philosophy of science. However, the ideas have spread slowly.
This paper reviews the strategies that have so far been employed
in attempts to win acceptance for second order cybernetics. Four
strategies are discussed: develop the new point of view; develop
applications of the new ideas to show their usefulness;
reconstruct the philosophy of science incorporating the new
ideas; and contrast the philosophical origins of cybernetics with
that of the dominant scientific world view.
KEYWORDS
Second order cybernetics; epistemology; knowledge;
constructivism; scientific revolution.
