Critical Systems Thinking

Introduction

The source of our power lies in the extraordinary technological capital we have succeeded in accumulating and in propagating, and the all‐pervasive analytic or positivistic methodologies which by shaping our minds as well as our sensibilities, have enabled us to do what we have done. Yet our achievement has, in some unforeseen (perhaps unforeseeable) manner, failed to satisfy those other requirements that would have permitted us to evolve in ways that, for want of a better word, we shall henceforth call ‘balanced’.

(Özbekan, 1970)

This book seeks to help people take decisions to improve situations that are of concern to them. It does not seek to provide solutions but to provide guidance on taking better decisions, particularly in the face of complexity and uncertainty. In philosophy, the study of human action and conduct is called praxeology. This is often understood in the narrow sense of calculating the optimal means of achieving known ends. Humans have become very good at this and, as Özbekan said, have ‘accumulated and propagated’ ‘extraordinary technological capital’ in support. The danger, recognised by him, is that the ‘analytic or positivistic methodologies’ that have enabled us to develop these powerful technologies have shaped our thinking to the extent that we are increasingly their servants rather than their masters. A way of trying to protect against this is to broaden the study of human conduct to embrace Aristotle’s notion of prudence (phronesis ...