Cybernetics & Human Knowing - Thesaurus pilot project
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Observer community

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Principia Cybernetica
Encyclopedia Autopoietica
International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics

 

Principia Cybernetica (web)
no def.

Encyclopedia Autopoietica
The term used by Varela (1979) to denote a multiplicity of observers participating in a common enquiry with respect to a system of interest: "...persons who embody the cognitive point of view that created the system in question, and from whose perspective it is subsequently described." (Varela, 1979, p. 85)

 

International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics
OBSERVATION

In a different sense any mental component is an observing act modefies the perception of the so-called object. The observer and the observed thing or event can never be completely and clearly dissociated (S. LUPASCO, 1972, p. 104).

As stated by H. von FOERSTER, we thus need "an observational epistemology" (1992, p. 44)

At least the following aspects should be taken care of:

  1. intentionality of the observer
  2. physiological limitations of the observer
  3. psychological and cultural bents (mindscapes) of the observer (conceptual organizational closure)
  4. selected level of observation (grossly: micro-, macro- or mega-)
  5. characteristics of the observational device used. (these show us what their construction allows for and we translate according to our knowledge of their characteristics)
  6. paradigmatic orientation of the observer (for ex.: mythical, mechanicist, reductionist or holistic bent)

    K. POPPER recognized the same situation: "The belief that we can start with pure observation alone, without anything in the nature of theory, is absurd…Observation is always selective. It needs a choosen object, a definite task, a point of view, a problem. And its description presupposes a descriptive language…" (1981, as quoted by M. DODDS and G. JAROS, 1994)