From Second Order Cybernetics to Second Order Science

Keynote Address

Annual Conference of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC)

Washington, October 25, 2005

Karl H. Müller (WISDOM)

mueller@wisdom.at

The World as We Knew It …. in 1965

London, July 11 to July 17, 1967:

International Colloquium on Philosophy of Science at Bedford College, Regent’s Park

Three Volumes with Imre Lakatos as Editor:Problems in the Philosophy of Mathematics (1967)The Problem of Inductive Logic (1968)Problems in the Philosophy of Science (1968)

Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave as Editors: Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (1970)

Meta- Philosophy of Science:Level Meta-Language, Meta-Criteria, Normative

Object- Scientific Disciplines; Level Science of Science; Transdisciplinary Programs

Robust Knowledge as a Circular Feedback Loop between Scientific Hypothesis and Theories at the Object Level and Philosophy of Science Assessments at the Meta-Level

Knowledge Organization in the World as We Knew It

Transdisciplinary Programs (1948 – 1965)

The Miracle Year 1948

General Systems TheoryInformation TheoryCyberneticsCognitive ScienceArtificial Intelligence

Bionics

Second Order Cybernetics (SOC)

SOC Emerged Gradually during the Early Seventies

1972 Heinz von Foerster, “Notes on an Epistemology for Living Things” (second order relators, third order relator ….)

1974 Heinz von Foerster et al. (eds.)(1974), Cybernetics of Cybernetics

1979 Heinz von Foerster “Cybernetics of Cybernetics”

1981pp. Cybernetics of CyberneticsUnderstanding Understanding Second Order CyberneticsCybernetic Reflections ….

Second Order Cybernetics (SOC)

Expressed More as a Vision than as a

Framework for Research Directed against Objectivity and Context-free Methodologies

Centered around Observer Self-Referentiality

From the World as We Knew It …..

….. to the World as We Know It

Decline of Philosophy of Science

Decline of First Order Cybernetics

Decline of Second Order Cybernetics

Risk-Society (Ulrich Beck)

Modernity I → Modernity II

Logic of Wealth-Production → Logic of Risk-Production

Classes, Strata → Individualization

Traditional Science → Self-Reflexive ScienceSelf-organization of the Scientific System towards Self-Reflexivity

Second order Science (SOS)

Second order Science (SOS)

Topical Closure Meta-Analysis

Self-ReferentialityObserver

Basic Configuration across All Four Domains

First Order Second Order

FOS SOS

Robust Knowledge as a Circular Feedback Loop within the Second Order Science Domain

Topical Closure

FOS-Concepts,Scientific Fields

SOS

Examples:

Goals of Goals, Purposes of Purposes ….Evolution of Evolution

Cybernetics of Cybernetics (Second Order Cybernetics)First Order Cybernetics: The Cybernetics of Observed SystemsSecond Order Cybernetics: The Cybernetics of Observing Systems

Sociology of Sociology …..

Meta-Analysis since the 1980ies

Frequency of the Concept „Meta-Analysis“ in Psychological Abstracts

Year Number of Counts

1967 – 1976 01977 21978 41979 61980 91981 181982 321983 551984 63

Meta-Analysis

First Order Second Order

Tests, TestResults

Tests of Tests, ´Test Results

of Test Results

Self-Referentiality

First Order Second Order

Functions, Operations,

Models, Attributes, Relations

Attributes of Attributes, Relations of Relations

Functions of Functions, Operations of Operations,

Models of Models

Example for Attributes of Attributes as Robust Search Strategy

Robert Axelrod (1984), The Evolution of Cooperation

Second Order Search for Attributes of First Order Attributes

On Observers

First Order Second Order

Theory of theBrain

Theory of LivingOrganisms

Theory of LivingOrganisms

Theory of theBrain

First Order Second Order