Hejl P. M. (1981) The definition of system and the problem of the observer: The example of the theory of society. In: Roth G. & Schwegler H. (eds.) Self-organizing systems. An interdisciplinary approach. Campus, Frankfurt: 170–185. https://cepa.info/3734
Hejl P. M.
(
1981)
The definition of system and the problem of the observer: The example of the theory of society.
In: Roth G. & Schwegler H. (eds.) Self-organizing systems. An interdisciplinary approach. Campus, Frankfurt: 170–185.
Fulltext at https://cepa.info/3734
First of all I shall outline functional-structural systems theory as an example of one of the most important system-theoretical approaches in present sociology. Then I shall point out some of its drawbacks and try to show that these are caused by the fact that the problems of the definition of system and of the observer have not been adequately considered. I shall finally outline a few considerations based on the theory of autopoietic systems and demonstrate them by means of an example.
Varela F. J. (1981) Autonomy and autopoiesis. In: Roth G. & Schwegler H. (eds.) Self-organizing systems: An interdisciplinary approach. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York: 14–24. https://cepa.info/2063
Varela F. J.
(
1981)
Autonomy and autopoiesis.
In: Roth G. & Schwegler H. (eds.) Self-organizing systems: An interdisciplinary approach. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York: 14–24.
Fulltext at https://cepa.info/2063
Excerpt: I hope to do the following: first, offer a characterization of what an autonomous system is, or rather what mechanisms endow a system with a degree of autonomy; second, to apply this characterization to three cases of relevance; third, to offer some remarks on the issue of formalizations of these ideas; forth, and finally, I shall conclude with some comment about the relation between autonomy and cognitive phenomena.