Transcript Science 2: Is a Broader Conception of Science still Science?

Science 2: Is a Broader Conception
of Science still Science?
Stuart A. Umpleby
The George Washington University
Washington, DC
Three conceptions of science 2
1. Ben Shneiderman’s notion of Science 2.0 –
sharing open source data via the internet
2. Gibbons, et al. on mode 2 research –
discipline-oriented research vs. product
oriented research or process improvement
research
3. Von Foerster’s second order cybernetics and
Soros’s reflexivity theory are leading to a
reconsideration of our conception of science
Are these changes really new?
1. The internet, open source data, and
academic globalization are leading to a great
expansion in collaboration
2. Multi-disciplinary product development
teams are required by advanced technology
3. The sociology of knowledge is not yet
considered to be the foundation for the
social sciences. Radical constructivism is not
widely known in the U.S.
World
1
3
Description
Observer
2
A diagram of science 1 and
science 2
• World, observer, and description correspond
to Popper’s worlds 1, 2, and 3
• The triangle also describes three phases in the
development of cybernetics – engineering
cybernetics, biological cybernetics, and social
cybernetics
• The left side – world and description – is
science 1
• The whole triangle is science 2
Engineering cybernetics
• The classical scientific method
• Create and test descriptions of the external
world
• A photograph metaphor – theories should be
accurate descriptions
Elements of the classical
philosophy of science
• Experiments are used to test theories
• Theories give meaning to observations
• Quantitative predictions are preferred to
merely qualitative predictions
• Observations should be independent of the
characteristics of the observer
• Results should be reproducible by other
experimenters
What is wrong with this view of
science?
• Maturana pointed out that every statement
made is made by an observer
• Science is a social activity. Thomas Kuhn’s
view of how scientists work. Examples of
physics and economics
• Social systems are composed of thinking
participants.
Biological cybernetics
• Another name for “second order cybernetics”
• The intention is to explain how the brain
creates descriptions of the world
World
1
3
Description
Observer
2
How the nervous system works
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Image on your retina
The blind spot
Move your eyes relative to your head
Playing football: did the stadium move?
Listening to a speech
Conversations at a party
Two kittens
Injured war veterans
Images on the retina are inverted
The blind spot experiment
Two Kittens
Injured war veteran
Realism vs. constructivism
• Realists assume that the world is primary and
ideas are secondary. Ideas are imperfect
representations of the real world. This is an
old philosophical debate.
• Constructivists point out that anything we
know about the world we know through our
senses. We have immediate access to ideas,
but not to the world. Neurophysiology
supported the constructivists
Lessons learned from
neurophysiology
• The brain does a lot of work for us that we are
not aware of
• Although we think we accurately perceive the
external world, the “reality” we perceive is
our own invention, based on our experiences
and our interpretations of them
• Remember that animals perceive quite
different worlds
World
1
3
Description
Observer
2
Social cybernetics
• The sociology of knowledge – our views of
society are influenced by our position in
society
• Theories of society, when they are accepted
and acted upon, change society
• Reflexivity – human beings both observe and
participate in social systems.
• The metaphor of driving a car
Two conceptions of
how to structure knowledge
• Most philosophers of
science
• Cause and effect
• If, then
• Analysis
• Reductionism
• Theory
• E.A. Singer, Jr.,
Churchman, Ackoff
• Producer - product
• Necessary conditions
• Synthesis
• Expansionism
• Method
Science one vs. science two
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Observation
Description
Test knowledge
Extrapolate/ forecast
Reproduce experiments
• Accuracy/ precision
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•
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Participation
Prescription
Solve problems
Create/ design
Achieve agreement or
acceptance
• Usefulness
The case of economics
• A thermodynamic model of the economy
• People in an economy are assumed to be
rational profit maximizers with complete
information which is available to all
• A series of Nobel Prizes have been awarded to
people who have successfully challenged one
of these assumptions
• Economics is now defined by its method
How to deal with the philosophy of
science
• Avoid it, work around it, ignore it
• Enlarge it
• Heinz von Foerster suggested including the
observer in the domain of observations
• If we add a new dimension, all the results in
science 1 also support science 2
New philosophy of science
Old philosophy of science
Amount of attention paid to
the observer
An Application of the Correspondence Principle
Should knowledge in the field of management be
constructed in the form of theories or methods?
Theories
Is there a difference between the
natural sciences and the social
sciences?
Yes
No
Popper’s doctrine of
the unity of method
Should we reject the
philosophy of science?
Yes
What should take its place?
How should knowledge be
constructed?
No
Expand the philosophy of
science to include knowing
subjects
Methods
Should methods be for the use of
individuals or groups?
Individuals
Groups
“Think like this”
“Act like this”
Do human activities change systems?
• Human beings change social systems by
changing laws and theories
• As technology improves, human beings are
even changing the natural environment – soil,
fish, climate
• We are learning to think about ourselves as
participants in the systems we study
• But to do that we need to change our
conception of science
Ideas
Variables
Groups
Events
A reflexive theory operates at two levels
Self-reference leads to
inconsistency
• Lou Kauffman has shown that inconsistency is not the
problem. Rather there is a need to pay attention to process
and multiple possibilities
• Once participants are admitted as part of the process being
modeled and their decision making and design abilities are
taken into account, then the multiple possibilities to which
they give rise must be taken into account and not seen as
contradictory
• Contradiction arises in the demand for simultaneous but
opposing possibilities. When simultaneity is opened up into
process, then contradictions open up into multiple
possibilities
Objections to paying attention to the
observer
• Including the observer requires self-reference,
a form of inconsistency. Lou Kauffman has
shown how to reinterpret this difficulty
• Science would lose the claim of objectivity, the
claim to objective authority
• The new activity should be called art or
philosophy, not science
Our ideas as constraints
• Science 1 was our invention. It is constraining
us
• We can choose to live within the constraints,
or we can choose to reinterpret the
constraints and design a new conception of
science
Is a broader conception of science
still science?
• We need to surrender our claims of objectivity
and our feelings of deductive certainty
• But we can define multidisciplinary methods
• We will still have peer review to identify high
quality work
Contact Information
Prof. Stuart Umpleby
Department of Management
School of Business
George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
www.gwu.edu/~umpleby
[email protected]
Presented at the World Multi-conference on
Cybernetics, Systemics, and Informatics
Orlando, Florida
June 29 – July 3, 2010
Engineering Cybernetics
Biological Cybernetics
Social Cybernetics
The view of
epistemology
A realist view
of epistemology:
knowledge is a
“picture” of reality
A biological view of
epistemology: how the
brain functions
A pragmatic view of
epistemology:
knowledge is
constructed to achieve
human purposes
A key distinction
Reality vs. scientific
theories
Realism vs. Constructivism
The biology of cognition vs.
the observer as a
social participant
The puzzle to be
solved
Construct theories which
explain observed
phenomena
Include the observer within the
domain of science
Explain the relationship
between the natural
and the social sciences
What must be
explained
How the world works
How an individual constructs a
“reality”
How people create,
maintain, and change
social systems through
language and ideas
A key assumption
Natural processes can be
explained by
scientific theories
Ideas about knowledge should
be rooted in
neurophysiology.
Ideas are accepted if they
serve the observer’s
purposes as a social
participant
An important
consequence
Scientific knowledge can
be used to modify
natural processes to
benefit people
If people accept constructivism,
they will be more tolerant
By transforming conceptual
systems (through
persuasion, not
coercion), we can
change society
Three Versions of Cybernetics