Cybernetics
& Human Knowing - Thesaurus pilot project
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Circularity |
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Definition |
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Principia Cybernetica (web) |
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Encyclopedia Autopoietica |
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| The construct of "circularity" occurs frequently in the literature.
This construct is introduced to denote a process or path which is closed upon itself in
form. This in turn sets the stage for a necessary cyclicity in systems exhibiting such
circular form: " The circularity of their organization continuously brings them back
to the same internal state (same with respect to the cyclic process)." (Maturana
& Varela, 1980, p. 10) Because autonomous and autopoietic systems exhibit
organizational closure, circularity and cyclicity are important aspects of their
description. Because such systems are self-organizing, -referential, -maintaining, etc.,
their operations cannot be fully explained without recourse to circularity. As such,
"circularity" is a generic explanatory theme necessitated by the form of
Maturana and Varela’s approach, and it is necessary theme in approaching
self-organization. Jantsch (1980, Chapter 10) extensively explores circularity (and
cyclicity) in this general sense. More specifically, this theme occasionally coalesces into particular constructs. Those allusions to circularity which are substantive enough to warrant labels include: basic circularity, circular organization, fundamental circularity.
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International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics |
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| Character of any self-repeating process. In order to take the time-dimension in account it would be more advisable to speak of "spirality". Circularity is the result of feedbacks, specially the cyclical ones, corresponding to alternative positive and negative action, or on-and-off processes. The circular process is essentially self-referential and basic for recursivity. it is generally functional and tends to generate either an algorithm, or a structure. A degree of (frequently hidden) circularity is unavoidable in reasoning: St. KAUFFMAN, quoting W.V. QUINE, considers that "no hypothesis confronts the "world" alone. Instead, it confronts the world as part of an entire worldview of linked hypotheses plus statements about the experimental situation. Given a negative experimental result, something must be rejected. Either some hypothesis is wrong, or a description of the experimental sistuation is incorrect. But, as Quine pointed out, the choice of which hypothesis to reject is a free one. ... Different choices of which hypothesis to reject impinge on the whole web of hypotheses and laws. To maintain coherence in that web, we typically choose to salvage a central circularly interdefined cluster of hypotheses" (1993, p. 17). This situation appeared repetitively in science since the nineteenth Century: Non-euclidean geometries, corpuscular and ondulatory theories of light propagation, quanta, relativity, chaos, etc... As to recursivity, it corresponds to von FOERSTER’s "Eigen-" concept, and to conceptual closure. R. GLANVILLE observed that circularity is of utmost importance in conservation in G. PASK’s sense, because it is: "... the basic for understanding, for the world as we (are) now seeing; it, and for our seeing it" (1993, p. 53). Circularity is thus in no way to be confused with vicious circles. Particularly in systemic semantics, this dictionary uses circularity in a positive way to induce a kind of intra-dialogue in the user’s mind by criss-crossing through the whole semantic field. In correspondence with organizational closure, circularity is also a characteristic of numerous natural processes and systems, specially biological and ecological ones, as a result of the complex interplay of multiple interconnected feedbacks.
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