A Note on Composition
Systems Research, Vol. 13, pp. 195-203, 1996
19 Pages Posted: 16 Jan 2013
Date Written: July 15, 1996
Abstract
It is characteristic of Heinz von Foerster's approach to the cybernetics of cybernetics that it combines a sense of tight reasoning with the acknowledgment of fundamental ignorance. The article attempts to uncover an epistemological relationship between the reasoning and the ignorance. The relationship is provided for by a razor which reads: What can be described in relation to its composition, is described in vain in relation to its substance. The razor asks for second-order terms instead of first-order terms, or for ontogenetics instead of ontology.
Keywords: cybernetics, Heinz von Foerster, ontogenetics, ontology, systems
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation