Durval wrote:
> Churchman, in "The Systems Approach", defines measurement as an
> association between a symbol and a phenomenon which is independent of the
> observer.
Which caused me to think of Werner Heisenberg, who said: "What we observe
is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."
In our quest for systemic thinking we must move from the objective world
of measuring and quantifying, to an epestimic world, where we seek to
change our perspective so we can see the whole, and tha patterns of
relationship within the whole. At the same time, we must reflect on and
broaden our method of questioning.
The danger, I think, in Churchman's "Systems Approach," given Durval's
terse explanation, is that the observer, the symbol, and the phenomenon,
at some point are related to one another. This would be especially true
within a human organization. Kapra suggests what we're seeking is not
knowledge per se, but approximate knowledge. In other words, nothing we
measure will ever be completely accurate, but it can be close.
--Benjamin B. Compton bbcompton@aol.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>