Walter Baets, PhD, HDR

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Management in complexityThe exploration of a
new paradigm

• Walter Baets, PhD, HDR
• Associate Dean for Innovation and Social
  Responsibility
• Professor Complexity , Knowledge and Innovation
• Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management

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• You will be confronted complexity for the rest of
  your managerial career
• In reality you do not know what will happen
  tomorrow, and so you cant control it

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Complex or complicated?

• Complex system is not a complicated system.
• Complex system
• - dynamic
• - non linear
• - complicated or simple
• Examples financial markets, the weather system,
  markets

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The new paradigm

• Complexity is a new paradigm
• Newtonian paradigm fixed time space concept
  where we know what has happened today so we will
  know what will happen tomorrow and so in theory
  can influence what happened in the past
• Reality is different to this you cant influence
  the past
• The Newtonian world is not reality
• You will manage in a complex world not a
  Newtonian one

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Ken Wilber A Brief History of Everything The
concept of a holon (part/whole)
I
IT
Interior-Individual Intentional
Exterior-Individual Behavioral
World of sensation, impulses, emotion,
concepts, vision
World of atoms, molecules, neuronal
organisms, neocortex
Truthfulness
Truth
Functional fit
Justness
World of societies, division of labour, groups,
families, tribes, nation/state, agrarian,
industrial and informational
World of magic, mythic, values
Exterior-Collective Social
Interior-collective Cultural
WE
ITS
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Flatland Edwin Abbott, 1884 A. Square meets
the third dimension
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Wanderer, your footprints are the path, and
nothing more Wanderer, there is no path, it is
created as you walk. By walking, you make the
path before you, and when you look behind you see
the path which after you will not be trod
again. Wanderer, there is no path, but the
ripples on the waters.
Antonio Machado, Chant XXIX Proverbios y
cantares, Campos de Castilla, 1917
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Definitions
Epistemology Views about the nature, the sources
and the limits of knowledge (what makes true
beliefs into knowledge) Ontology Philosophical
investigation of existence or being 1. What
means being 2. What exists An ontology is
what philosophers take to exist The ontology of a
theory is the things that have to exist for a
theory to be true
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The essence of science
Pictures science within its contemporary
framework (not in the absolute) Provides a
framework that allows judgement about the
epistemological relevance of a theory (or
application) (Philosophy of) science is often
embedded in sociology and history (other than
philosophy that often develops its own logic)
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My taxonomy of philosophy of science
Historical embedding Origin
Philosophical theories
Design consequences
Logical positivism (Wiener Kreis) Critical
rationalism (Popper) Kuhns paradigm
theory Lakatos theory Symbolic interactionism Crit
ical theories
1 Philosophy
Deduction Induction Empiricism Hypotheses
testing Qualitative research
2 Architecture Arts Usefulness as a criteria
Feyerabends chaostheory Postmodern
theories (Derida, Apostel, Foucault, Deleuze)
Design paradigm (van Aken) Social construction
of reality Design norms
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My taxonomy of philosophy of science/2
Historical embedding Origin
Philosophical theories
Design consequences
3 Neurobiology
Radical constructivism (Maturana,
Mingers) Autopoiesis (Varela) Self-reference
(Gödel)
Dynamic re-creation The emergence of object and
subject Local (contextual) validity
4 Cognitive Artificial Intelligence
Paradigm of mind (Franklin, Kim)
Adaptive systems Implicit learning
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The pre-history of philosophy of science
Pre-Cartesian/Pre-Galilean period (before 17th
century) Church is the seat of science Science
exists to confirm religion Science is the common
sense In fact it is holistic 17th to the 19th
century I think,therefor I am Experimentation The
role of the researcher as involved subject was
not (yet) questioned Absolute Newtonian
framework (absolute time and space
concept) Measurability The end of holistic
thinking in science
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The 20th century
Breakthrough of relativity theory (Einstein)
(objective measurement can no longer be claimed)
and quantum mechanics (it is all
interpretation) Comparing the validity of
theories (e.g. Lorentz versus Einstein) needs
different methods 1931 Gödels theorem (general
validity of symbolic reasoning can no
longer be claimed)
Box of Pandora
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Self - Reference
Gödel theorem (1931) All consistent axiomatic
formulations of the number theory contains
propositions on which one cannot decide. It all
boils down to a loop problem (being
self-referential) (Esher drawings) Language is
self-referential. Can we make numbers
self-referential ? Number theory
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Gödel number is a number that substitutes an
expression (about numbers) Gödels world
contains numbers Expressions in number
theory Or, expressions about expressions in
number theory. No existing system of numbers, no
reference system (of any kind) can be found in
which everything can be correct or
complete. Societal consequences of
self-reference.
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Critical rationalism
Popper 1902 - 1994 Principle of
falsification Knowledge needs continuously
improved (characteristic) Induction is not
always valid from all observed A are B to all
A are B Only knowledge as a product is
important an epistemology without a knowing
subject No context of discovery
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Causality is a consequence of the methodology,
not a concept in itself (in line with logical
empiricism) Scientific discovery leads from the
known to the unknown Unity of method in all
empirical sciences, including social
sciences The idea that the development of a
society can be forecasted (and hence is fixed)
is for Popper a serious threat for freedom and
democracy (political or scientific viewpoint
?) Subject of social sciences is rational
choice decisions
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Kuhns paradigm theory (1922 - 1996)
Confronted prevailing philosophies with the
history of science History of science did not
follow its own rules Particularly influential in
the social sciences Science always fits within a
context, a time-period Science is also a
potential act who fits best the political
situation
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Not the method makes the difference, but the
social acceptance (peer evaluation) Context of
discovery and context of justification cannot be
subdivided Methodological rules for theories are
never mandatory, it are choices Periods of
normal sciences peer evaluation
scientific revolution choices (cf
Lakatos)
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Symbolic interactionism
Developed within the social sciences Opposes
logical positivism Opposes the object/subject
viewpoint of critical rationalism Cause-effect
relationships (Popper) are replaced by
reason- behavior It attempts to understand,
(predict) and influence George Herbert Mead
(1863-1932) based on pragmatism of John Dewey
(1859-1952)
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Pragmatism truth is based on usability (see
design paradigm) based only on what can be
observed (against metaphysics) No value free
science A lot of behavior is rule-based, social
context decides the rules Social context is
expressed in symbols (signs) Interactionism
refers to the dynamics of the process Does this
theory re-introduces a holistic view ?
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Feyerabends Chaos Theory (1924-1994)
Scientific practice in contrast with scientific
method. Observation non-experts identified new
developments against prevailing assumptions in
the scientific community. Science is essentially
anarchic enterprise theoretical anarchism is
more humanitarian and more likely to encourage
progress than its law-and-order alternatives. The
only principle that does not inhibit progress
is anything goes. We may advance science by
proceeding counterinductively In fact a
postmodern view on science
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Self-producing systems, autopoiesis radical
constructivism
Maturana, Varela, Gödel, Mingers Biological
principle of self-producing systems
Autopoeisis Has been interpreted a lot by
different fields, differently In opposition to
the focus on species and genes, Maturana
and Varela pick out the single, biological
individual (e.g. an amoebae) as the central
example of a living system Individual autonomy,
self-defined entities within an organism
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Philosophical implications of autopoiesis
Epistemological and ontological
presuppositions It constitutes a theory about
the observer It implies there is no claim to
objectivity Beliefs and theories are purely
human constructs which constitute rather than
reflect reality constructivism Biology of
cognition (1970) observer is the system in
which description takes place
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Taylors view on the brain
The computer attempt to automate human thinking
Manipulating symbols Modeling the
brain Represent the world
Simulate interaction of neurons Intelligence
problem solving Intelligence learning 0-1
Logic and mathematics Approximations,
statistics Rationalist, reductionist Idealized,
holistic Became the way of building computers
Became the way of looking at minds