Darrell P. Arnold (Ed.), Traditions of Systems Theory. Major Figures and Contemporary Developments, London/New York, Routledge, 2014
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DARRELL P. ARNOLD (ED.), TRADITIONS OF SYSTEMS THEORY. MAJOR FIGURES AND CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS, LONDON/NEW YORK, ROUTLEDGE, 2014. Mark Losoncz “There is absolutely no knowing what may others) and further contemporary devel- yet become part of history. The past is still opments (such as systems heuristics and perhaps essentially undiscovered! There is evolutionary cultural ecology). yet so many retroactive forces still needed!”, In his introductory article to Part I, Dar- Nietzsche writes in one of his aphorisms. rell P. Arnold emphasizes that Bertalanffy In effect, this is the project realized by the was inclined to integrate the sciences into book Traditions of Systems Theory. It is one megasystem. According to Arnold, de- not a coincidence that the editor’s intro- spite the failure of these immodest aspira- ductory article in Part I is entitled Systems tions, systems theory became very signifi- Theory: A Secret History of the Twentieth cant, even in fields in which its influence Century. Indeed, it is suggested that there mostly remained hidden (as in the case of is a somewhat veiled intellectual history holistic ecological thinking). Furthermore, that needs to be reconstructed carefully. Arnold compares certain systems theo- Ludwig von Bertalanffy, one of the found- retical insights to contemporary posthu- ers of general systems theory has already manist (and transhumanist) constructivism claimed that the works of many thinkers and concludes that “we don’t get at the might be reinterpreted as systems theory world directly or fully but only indirectly avant la lettre, including those of Nicho- and incompletely, within the parameters las of Cusa, Paracelsus, Leibniz, Vico, Ibn of a particular system, with all that sys- Khaldun, Goethe, Whitehead and others. tem’s limitations” (p. 13). Obviously, this This time the explicit systems theories of is an essential counterpoint to the origi- the twentieth century themselves are re- nal ambitions of Bertalanffy. In Chapter read as very important but mostly unac- 2, Philipp Schweighauser summarizes the knowledged achievements. Accordingly, conceptual results of information theory the analyses of the early, usually forgot- with a special emphasis on the problem of ten developments are especially valuable. informational entropy, noise and seman- This volume refers to systems theory as tics. Schweighauser points out not only comprehensively as possible – “systems that Shannon’s information theory faced theory” embraces not only the various many challenges, especially with regard to ramifications of general systems theory meaning and its distortions, but he also re- and cybernetics, but also dynamic systems constructs the persistence of information theory (as developed by Ilya Prigogine and theory in different theoretical approaches, 458 │ PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY, VOL. 29, NO. 3 including the technology-centred, postan- (de-substantialization, holism, relationism, thropocentric theories of culture (as elab- constructivism, etc.). Although Pouvreau orated, for instance, by Friedrich Kittler) does not spend much time on convincing and the aesthetic theories of Jacques Attali, us with regard to the adequacy of the ex- Michel Serres and William R. Paulson. In pression “hermeneutics” in this context, Chapter 3, Ranulph Glanville’s article on he accurately demonstrates the relevance cybernetics insists, in a ventourous man- of the symbolic sphere for Bertalanffy’s ner, that “cybernetics seems to be more perspective. It is particularly inspiring to general, more philosophical, and more follow Bertalanffy’s vacillation between abstract than systems theory” (p. 47). Re- realist and constructivist philosophical gardless of this disputable thesis, Glanville positions. What is more, Pouvreau also reconstructs the main achievements of cy- takes into consideration the axiological, bernetics cautiously and with precision. It praxeological and technological aspects is of great importance that he questions of general systemology. In the following the pertinence of the distincion between chapter, Bernhard Pörksen discusses the first-order and second-order cybernetics, epistemologically inspiring constructivism given the fact that the observer was of- of Heinz von Foerster. As Pörksen puts it, ten included already in the early work of “with second-order cybernetics comes the Norbert Wiener. However, it does not fol- obligation to be conscious of one’s own low that Glanville neglects the significant idiosyncrasies and blind spots, to link ob- changes within cybernetics, on the con- jects to oneself, and to understand them trary, he stresses e.g. the transformations seriously as one’s own product” (p. 139). with regard to the concept of error or the In addition, Pörksen treats ethics as a key attempt of the cybernetics of cybernetics question for constructivist-cybernetic an- to make the field self-consistent and ap- thropology, with special attention to the ply the system to itself. John Bruni’s very challenge of undecidability and incalcula- short article (it consists of four and a half bility. The epistemological (and ontolog- pages), entitled Expanding the Self-Refer- ical) issues are also a central focus in Bob ential Paradox. The Macy Conferences and Mugerauer’s article Maturana and Varela. the Second Wave of Cybernetic Thinking, de- From Autopoiesis to Systems Applications. scribes the Macy Conferences as a decisive Mugerauer is careful to mention the most catalyst for second-order systems theory. significant divergences between Maturana One can find many exciting allusions, for and Varela. For instance, whereas Matura- instance, when Bruni writes that, according na defines organizational closure and the to Wiener’s pivotal intuition, “systems rad- stability of homeostasis as the decisive as- ically destabilize self-identity, that is, they pect of autopoiesis, Varela claims that the disturb the idea of the corporeal body as a emphasis should be put on structural cou- grounding for subjectivity” (p. 81). Unfor- pling. Mugeauer also gives importance to tunately, even this remark remains a mere ethical questions, within the context of a hint. Bruni’s extremely brief article can be practical know-how and our “situated em- contrasted to the 53-page-long, profound bodiment”. The detailed interpretations article written by David Pouvreau, The Her- of evolutionary theory, immunology and meneutical System of General Systemology. neurophenomenology will be of great help Bertalanffian and Other Early Contribu- for readers unfamiliar with Maturana’s and tions to Its Foundations and Development. Varela’s theory. In the final article of Part I, Pouvreau defines Bertalanffy’s theory as Joel B. Hagen covers Eugene Odum’s thesis a philosophical (however, anti-specula- on the homeostatic ecosystem. This arti- tive, “inductively metaphysical”) syste- cle is by far the most critical with the ob- mology and, accordingly, gives empha- ject of its analysis, in accordance with the sis to the philosophical (e.g. neo-Kantian controversies around Odum’s suggestion and process-philosophical) sources of sys- that ecosystems have to be conceptualized tems theory and its conceptual decisions as some kind of balanced superorganisms. REVIEWS / PRIKAZI │ 459 With an eye on both pro and contra argu- the theories of N. Katherine Hayles, Cary ments, Hagen managed to summarize one Wolfe, and Bruce Clark. He suggests that a of the most interesting debates in systems fusion of systems approaches and the the- theory and cybernetics in a nutshell. ories of posthumanism, media and mass Part II focuses on the sociological im- culture is not only possible but highly de- plications of systems theory, including Tal- sirable. Chapter 13, Systems Heuristics and cott Parsons’ sociological theory of action Digital Culture, by Raphael Sassower and systems, Luhmann’s theory of complex Nimrod Bar-Am, unnecessarily repeats cer- systems and world-systems theory. Betti- tain unargued commonplaces with regard na Mahler’s chapter draws up the devel- to (anti-)reductionism, the overcoming of opment of Parsons’ structural functional- the paradigm of the “clock” and the still ism from his early voluntaristic theory of prevalent Smithian ideal of laissez-faire. social action. Moreover, Mahler contrasts The article becomes more meaningful Parsonsian systems theory with Immanu- when it introduces the problem of com- el Wallerstein’s world-systems theory and plexity, interconnection and joint/crowd Luhmann’s sociology. Luhmann’s somewhat intelligence. The authors convincingly ambivalent realist constructivism is more argue that the concept of the digital-stig- detailedly presented in the following article mergic-human system is one of the most written by Walter Reese-Schäfer. What is promising contemporary developments unique about this article is that it does not in systems theory. Unfortunately, in Peter hesitate to deal with the most challenging Finke’s article, A Brief Outline of Evolu- and speculative problems of Luhmannian tionary Cultural Ecology, cultural ecology theory, including that of the observer’s par- appears merely as a floating and vague ap- adoxical self-observation as reflection, the proach, without a satisfying clarification re-entry of the differentiation between sys- of its historical development and key ex- tem and environment within the system or ponents – these information might be re- the exclusively recursive possibility of the constructed only partially, with the help world. Mahler brilliantly articulates even of the notes. The