Towards a New Foundation for Systems Practice: Grounding Multi-Method Systemic Interventions

UNIVERSITY OF HULL Towards a New Foundation for Systems Practice: Grounding Multi-Method Systemic Interventions being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD in the University of Hull by Manuel Pretel-Wilson (BBus, BA, MA, MS) May 15, 2017 “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” Marcel Proust In Memory of Àngel Ros Bosch (1961-2001) For developing my capacity to question And constantly learn about reality I was truly honoured Thank you! Acknowledgements First, I want to thank Gerald Midgley for giving me the opportunity to deliver a seminar at the Centre of Systems Studies in HUBS. I never expected that a random email after having read his great book, Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice (2000), would take me to England, and even less to start a PhD in Systems Science. I’m also grateful because he encouraged me to write a paper that I presented at the ISSS 2014 Conference, in Washington DC, on what I thought at the time was General System Theory (GST) but turned out to be Systems Philosophy, and especially for suggesting me, at a time when I nearly gave up the whole endeavour, a possible route to continue my thesis that turned out to be the right one after all. Indeed, Gerald triggered the crucial turning point that made this PhD worthwhile. Thanks for your precious encouragement; otherwise this thesis would have never seen the light. My thanks go to Angela Espinosa and Joan Walker for having introduced me to the practice of systemic interventions, without which I would never have witnessed the powerful potential of systems methodologies. Thanks to them I learned about the practicalities of a viable system model (VSM) intervention, and also the challenges of successful practice. I really enjoyed discussing and learning about the VSM and the great man behind it, Stafford Beer. Thanks for their constant support and hospitality from the very first day we met and all the time they devoted to teach me how to apply the VSM. Thanks for having had so much patience with me while I was trying to integrate that theory into my world image. The VSM has really been fundamental as an exemplar for systems science. I hope I have done justice to its authenticity Finally, I don’t want to forget my gratitude to David Rousseau for reviewing my first paper on “General System Theory” and, together with Gerald, for having discussed with me for more than four consecutive hours an early version of my Systems Philosophy. Questioning my own work through the eyes of others has been fundamental in improving this thesis which has taken over eighteen months since I finished my first draft. I think I have paid tribute to one of the crucial tenets of Critical Systems Theory (CST). In this sense, I have been very lucky in having Gerald as a supervisor to encourage my critical awareness. I hope I have done a good job. Now it is for the reader to judge. Abstract My purpose with this PhD has been to provide a new foundation for systems practice in order to ground multi-method systemic interventions. The field of Critical System Thinking (CST), which was established to provide this grounding, finds itself immersed in a crisis called the “paradigm problem”. This has come about because it has sought to integrate different Western epistemologies in order to ground methodological pluralism. In particular, CST has uncritically assumed parallel worlds that speak different languages in its attempt to integrate different systems approaches informed by Western epistemologies that are not ontology-free. Hence, system practice is in need of a new ground to justify the use of different systems methodologies that avoids both a fractured universe and atheoretical pragmatism. I advance a ‘world-hypothesis’, which is essentially a world-image to explain reality. I have pursued a fascinating journey into systems philosophy and systems science to see the universe with new eyes. The result is a new world image called the One World of causally interdependent systems that competes both with the Common World of linguistic meanings constituted by society through language and with the Natural World of extended objects made of interacting parts. The One World hypothesis questions the authenticity of currently prevailing world- images and points to the possibility of a new age for systems thinking. However, controversially for systems scientists, the implication is that they need to give up on both the part-whole and the holarchy concepts. Importantly, if the One World hypothesis is to provide new grounds for systems practice and methodological pluralism, the picture of the universe has to be completed with an understanding of how conscious systems operate. Thus, I provide a scientific hypothesis and I postulate education as a future systems methodology to inform systemic interventions in conscious systems. I also encourage systems scientists and systems practitioners to work together to flesh out a multi-method skeleton to organize the field of systems practice. Finally, I propose the next phase of my own research, which will be to develop an educational systems methodology to improve conscious systems. Index Page Chapter 1 1-6 Introduction Part One. 7-56 Critical Review of Contemporary Systems Thinking Chapter 2. The Paradigm Problem in Critical Systems Thinking (CST) 8-19 Chapter 3. Methodological Pluralism in Critical Systems Thinking (CST) 20-38 Chapter 4 The System Concept in Critical System Thinking (CST) 39-48 Chapter 5 The Hierarchy of Systems in General System Theory (GST) 49-56 Part Two. 57-70 Research Methodology and Research Question Chapter 6 The Hypothetico-Inductive Method 58-61 Chapter 7 World-Hypothesis 62-67 Chapter 8 Research Question: How to Ground Systems Practice? 68- 70 Part Three. 71-182 Systems Philosophy Chapter 9 Metaphysics: How is Something rather than Nothing Possible? 72-88 Chapter 10 Ontology: How is the Structure of the Universe Possible? 89-149 Chapter 11 Epistemology: How is Knowledge Possible? 150-160 Chapter 12 Thought: How is Knowledge-Structure Possible? 161-176 Chapter 13 The Demarcation between Philosophy and Science 177-183 Part Four 184-218 Systems Sciences Chapter 14 Aristotle’s Theory of Causes 185-188 Chapter 15 Kant’s Theory of Causes 189-192 Chapter 16 A Theory of Causal Explanations 193-200 Chapter 17 State of Systems Science 201-219 Part Five 220-262 Towards a Theory of Conscious Systems Chapter 18 Scheler’s Theory of Social Units 221-236 Chapter 19 Hartmann’s Theory of Spiritual Formations 237-247 Chapter 20 A Theory of Conscious Systems: My Scientific Hypothesis 248-262 Part Six 263-271 Systems Practice Chapter 21 The Foundations for Systems Practice 264-271 Conclusion 272-274 References 275-284 Table of Figures Page Table 1. The Evolution of Kuhn’s concept of Paradigm 13 Table 2. Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) Sociological Paradigms 16 Table 3. Jackson’s (2003) ‘ideal-type’ grid of problem contexts 21 Table 4. Jackson’s (2003) System of Systems Methodologies (SOSM) 22 Table 5. Flood and Jackson’s (1991) Metaphors mapped onto SOSM 25 Table 6. Midgley’s (1992) Three Paradigms of Ontological Thought 28,265 Table 7. Minger’s (1997) Multidimensiontal World 34, 266 Diagram 1. Mutually Incompatible Worlds 36 Diagram 2. Mapping between Dualisms and Ontologies 37 Table 8. Pseudo-ontologies underpinning Critical Systems Thinking 45 Diagram 3. Miller’s Hierarchy of Levels of Organization 51 Table 9. Summary of Bounding Skeleton of Science assuming 54 Ontological Levels Table 10. Four Perennial Problems in Philosophy 67 Table 11. World-Images in History of Western Thought 87,233 Diagram 4. Dualisms in the History of Western Thought 87 Diagram 5. Schopenhauer’s Ontological Levels 91 Table 12. The Attributes of God and the Universe 95 Table 13. Hartmann’s Real Being and Ideal Being 96 Table 14. Hartmann’s Modalities of Being 100 Table 15. Hartmann’s Ontological Levels 109 Diagram 6. Dualisms splitting Inner/Outer Duality 114 Diagram 7. Pseudo-Ontologies derived from Western Epistemologies 115 Table 16. Concepts implicit in Western Epistemologies 115 Table 17. Dualities of Being defining Ontological Levels 116 Diagram 8. Science Wars leading to the Crisis Science 140 Diagram 9. Scheler’s Hierarchy of Values 144,221 Diagram 10. Scheler’s Hierarchy of Beings 147 Table 18. Summary of Western Epistemologies 153 Diagram 11. Unity between Cognitive and Conscious Experiences 156 Diagram 12. Different Forms of Knowledge 157 Table 19. Conscious and Cognitive experiences enabling Knowledge 159 Table 20. From Genus to Species of Human 163 Diagram 13. The Three of Porphyry 166 Table 21. Isomorphism between Concepts and Systems 169 Diagram 14. Standard Concept of System 170 Table 22. Assumed versus Actual of Structure of Thought 171 Diagram 15. My Concept of System 175 Table 23. Different Demarcations between Philosophy and Science 179 Diagram 16. My World-Hypothesis 182 Table 24. My Demarcation Criteria between Philosophy and Science 183 Table 25. Kant’s Types of Cause 190 Table 26. My Theory of Causal Explanations 197 Table 27. Efficient Causes triggering different Territories of Reality 199 Diagram 17. (M,R)-System Relational Model 208 Table 28. Functions of Beer’s Metasystem 214 Table 29. Summary of the State of Systems Science 216 Diagram 18. Subfields in Systems Thinking 218 Diagram 19. Scheler’s Types of Co-Experiences 223 Table 30. Main Features of Scheler’s Social Units 230 Table 31. Scheler’s Ontological and Organizational Levels 232 Table 32. Scheler’s Factual Social Units 233 Table 33. Attributes of Hartmann’s Spiritual Formations 238 Table 34. My Hypothesis of How Conscious Systems Operate 262 Table 35. “Science Wars” assumed by CST 267 Table 36.

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