Hyper-Book Review Essay
International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, by Charles François, 2nd edition, 2004 K.G. Saur Publisher, Munich, 741pp. Price: €350. ISBN 3-598-11630-6 (SET).
By Dr. Karl H. Wolf, Springwood, NSW 2777, Australia
Wolfwisdom@bigpond.com.au
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Caveats: reasons for this lengthy hyper-review
3. Near-synonyms of cybernetics & system studies
4. Encyclopedia appeals to all disciplines
5. ‘Methodologies’ used in cybernetics
6. ‘Concepts’ used in cybernetics
7. Specific-discipline applications of cybernetics, e.g. Human System Cybernetics
8. Why use this Encyclopedia-cum-reference handbook?
9. Limitations of Encyclopedia & recommendation
(A) General comments
(B) Recommendations for the Introduction of future editions
10. Supplementary publications in support of Encyclopedia
11. Bibliography
(1) Introduction
Reality is complex; there are no isolated parts, only wholes. Everything forms systems; very complex systems – of many different types of theoretical (abstract, conceptual) as well as physical (concrete, mechanical) systems, ranging in scale from the microscopic to the global, lasting a few seconds to millions of years. For convenience we have used reductionism to find parts that are easy to observe, describe, map, sort, classify, understand, hypothesize about, perhaps find theories allowing us to predict and extrapolate. This, naturally, resulted in knowledge-domain compartmentalization, fragmentation, specialization: each traditional discipline has its own characteristic (diagnostic?) philosophies, methodologies, and techniques – and, naturally, literature, including specialized encyclopedias. The investigation of these systems has become an expert knowledge domain known as systems analysis and cybernetics, among other assigned terms. The presently reviewed Encyclopedia is, in fact, one basic conceptual tool used by these disciplines, alleviating to a certain degree the information glut.
François’ publication is different from most ‘encyclopedias’ inasmuch as his version could be more accurately described as a hybrid of encyclopedia—dictionary—glossary—handbook—reference and source book. It’s even a bit of a thesaurus. It comprises several hundred entries, alphabetically listed, dealing with very specific topics researched over decades by François who acted as intellectual filter by scanning innumerable publications. Could one declare it to be a new genre?
The Encyclopedia is recommended to all researchers, practitioners, writers, editors, peer-reviewers, teachers, and even some journalists (e.g. reporting on R and D), and thus ought to be in the library of all secondary and tertiary educational institutions, and of course in all research libraries – precisely because system science increasingly must transcend all professions, as demonstrated by the Encyclopedia’s Bibliography. The Internet also lists many highly specialized cybernetic/systems journals covering numerous diverse, seemingly disconnected, professions. The establishment of Centres of Excellence and Cooperative Research Centres in Australia, for example, is a recognition that an integrated multi-disciplinary approach, i.e. a systematic cybernetic philosophy-cum-methodology, is indispensable in the 21st Century.
As is customary, one will get a good quick overview by reading the Introduction in the Encyclopedia about the development of the term (since the 1940s) of cybernetics in the context of other similar philosophies, the need for its increasing application, its advantages and few fuzzy limitations, its present status, among other useful information – as seen by François who acts not only as an information gatherer, digester, evaluator and distiller, but also as a bit of a Devil’s Advocate in suggesting that cybernetics will remain a continually operating science (and art) as new concepts are adopted and older ones dropped. That cybernetics will continue to evolve and expand into ‘unknown ‘ domains is illustrated by Buchanan (2005) and Laughin (2004/5, e.g. suggesting a new ‘Age of Emergence’ in science/physics), for example.
(2) Caveats: reasons for this lengthy hyper-review?
(a) In reality, this is a quasi-review, i.e. much different from a ‘normal’ book review, written in the hope that a 3rd Edition will eventually be prepared. If not, consider this essay as a supplement to the excellent Encyclopedia.
(b) We offer this review essay as a Hyper-publication in the sense described by Young (2007), i.e. publications similar to those on the online Wikipedia Encyclopedia where readers can access any articles and modify -- i.e. expand, correct, reinterpret, etc. -- the publications. These publications, in other words, are dynamic, open, evolving, in contrast to the normal hardcover books which are static, closed, final.
(c) This Review was prepared in 2005 when I received the complimentary review copy of the Encyclopedia. Just recently during mid-2008, I totally rewrote this earlier preliminary 1st-draft essay because the 1st draft was indeed ‘very inadequate’! I also added a few more-recent references to publications in the text and the References. At the beginning, my ‘enthusiasm’ carried me away and my ‘evaluation’ grew topsy-turvy to become really an ESSAY OF PROPOSAL FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT. This is made easy as the Encyclopedia is being maintained on a WEBSITE. The information in this Essay will allow further expansion and updating. In other words, the present version is still ‘preliminary’ -- of first-draft quality.
(d) My essay is written in a rather colloquial style and since editing is minimal may contain some errors and even controversial ideas. Let me know your opinions!
(e) For four formal reviews of this Encyclopedia published in refereed international journals, see Wolf (2005a,b,c,d).
(f) Copies of the earlier ‘inadequate’ essay-version were sent to numerous experts/specialists in cybernetics and systems analysis in several countries, including of course to Professor François.
(3) Near-synonyms of cybernetics & systems studies
These two sub-disciplines have been a cognitive-cum-philosophical guide for all scientific and non-scientific theoretical and applied research. Even the fine arts have been or will be involved to achieve desired results. The latter term may be preferred by some, as it has been employed by more disciplines as ‘systems analysis, or science, or research’ as well as ‘general systems theory’ in contrast to the former. To be sure, a systematic approach has been attempted for several hundred years, but it was simpler in nature and one had as yet not developed an appropriate terminology, which keeps on evolving. Some even believe we have reached a level of ‘Cybernetics of Cybernetics’ or a ‘Systems Analysis of Cybernetics’. Isn’t that what François and many others have achieved?
Briefly, what I called near-synonymous terms in the present context are the following: systems analyses, cybernetics, holism or holistics, networking, and synergy or synergetics. True, they are strictly speaking not the same. However, their aim is so similar because they request the integration of philosophies, data, methodologies, and techniques from any discipline to solve a problem. Consequently, for simplicity sake I like to view them here as ‘near-synonyms’ or ‘analogous words’ in accordance with the Webster’s New Dictionary of Synonyms.
Another matter to consider is that many experts using systems analysis, etc., do so without referring to any of the terms just mentioned, but use methodologies that are systems analytical in reality. The following publications dealing with the listed topics exemplify this:
● information theory (many publications available; e.g. see Springer Verlag’s Series related to synergetics/synergy over 80 books), integration (e.g. Alexiev et al., 2005; many more), model building (Eykhoff, 1974; Wolf; 1973a,b & 1976; innumerable publications available), analogue and scenario constructing, critical-path analysis (Lang, 1970/80),
● flow-chart construction, control-system theory, managerial-grid system analysis, decision support systems (Kendall & Kendall, 1995), and network analysis (e.g. Land, 1970/80; Carrington et al., 2005, on social analysis),
● consilience, morphological analysis, holographic attempt, Venn-diagram preparation (Laborit, 1977, p. 199), link analysis (IT approach, Thelwall, 2004), and data-mining-style research (see cyber-archaeology; Roszak, 1985/94, p. 196) – all referred to by François.
Especially ‘modeling/analogy-constructing’ is employed by just about all professions (hundreds of publications available: e.g. Hesse, 1963; see also my own efforts -- Wolf, 1973a,b & 1976, 1985). Likewise, attempts to predict (e.g. Rescher, 1998), comparative/contrastive studies to establish cause-effect (e.g. Savory, 1998) relationships, for example, are all implicitly and inherently cybernetic in character.
To reiterate: I will use here ‘cybernetics’ as a generic (collective, umbrella) term to cover all the just-listed ‘systems-analytical-related’ terminologies, although some experts may be offended. These linguistic purists who may object to François using ‘cybernetics’ in the broader modern sense find explanations in his pertaining sections. See also Bullock/Trombley (1999).
(4) Encyclopedia appeals to all disciplines
The next three sections offer longer lists of (a) disciplines which have employed cybernetics; (b) cybernetics-related methodologies; and (c) concepts, theories, …, used in cybernetic research in order to answer ‘How best to demonstrate the wide application of cybernetics and the readership addressed by the Encyclopedia?’ The entries are by necessity ‘unclassified’ and haphazardly listed; of course there are numerous overlaps as there are no sharp divisions between disciplines↔methodologies↔concepts …. All this information to supplement Francois’ data repertoire and his References. Caveat: the lists are really totally incomplete! – but a start! The frequent comment of ‘many more publications are available’ is an invitation to search the Internet.
Briefly, it is obvious that since everything forms complex systems (i.e. conveniently divided into technical, natural, abstract, social, organizational, and motoric systems by Baron-Cohen, 2003) everyone is enveloped by some sort of ‘system atmosphere’. There is absolutely no abstract or physical ‘part’ that does not belong to some complex ‘whole’, which means that all disciplines must utilize cybernetics.
The following is an admittedly haphazard overview of knowledge domains (disciplines, professions) that have utilized cybernetics:
● all basic/exact sciences [like physics, mathematics/probability (many books, including on Philosophy of Mathematics, e.g. Clarke, 1992; Rucker, 1988; Stewart, 1989; Sardar, 1999; Ruelle, 1991; Barrow, 1992; Hersh, 1997; Barrow, 2002; and Davis/Hersh, 1980/1990; Maynard-Smith, 1982, on game theory; Hacking, 1990; Woodward, 2005; Gigerenzer/Murray, 1987; Stigler, 1988, on statistics; for mathematics/medical & law practice, see respectively Matthews, 1995 & Tribe, 1971; Daston, 1988; Gigerenzer, 1989; Krüger et al., 1987, on probability; for mathematics in political economy, see Whewell, 1971), astronomy/cosmology (many books, e.g. Layzer, 1990; Luminet, 1992; Riordan & Schramm, 1991)—e.g. self-organization of the universe (Poundstone, 1985) and planetory research/exploration, exo-chemistry, exo-biology], and The Theory of Everything (Barrow, 1992; Weisberg, 1992); for mathematical treatment see Penrose, 1989, 1994;
● derived/hybrid sciences like geology Harvey/Diment, 1978), resource sciences (e.g. mining, water—e.g. McKean, 1981, petroleum), oceanography (Gill, 1982; Knauss 1997; Warren/Wunsch, 1981), regional science (Isard, 1975);
● engineering (von Weizsäcker et al., 1997; for dams, see among many others Peterson, 1954; Smil, 2003; see also numerous books on risk & disaster/catastrophe/accident management), computer technologies;
● alternative energy systems investigations; feasibility studies; regional effects of dams;
● manufacturing, agriculture (e.g. Savory, 1999), mining, exploration (petroleum gas, water, metals, non-metals/industrial minerals), energy (many publications, but see Smil, 2003);
● general philosophy & philosophy of specific disciplines/knowledge domains and/or problems (e.g. Philosophy of Science – many books available, e.g. Thompson, 2001; Murd & Cover, 1998; Papineau, 1996; Gower, 1997; Shamos, 1995; Gribbin, 2002; Bronowski, 1978; Zeldin, 1994; Capra, 1982; Goodman, 1983, on induction; Kuhn, 1977, about five characteristics of a good scientific theory; Sadar, 2000 about Science War related to Kuhn; Szostak, 2004, on classifying science; Rahman et al., 2004, on many topics of Unity of Science, see Rahman et al., 2004; Maxwell, 2004, on the question of ‘neurotic science?’; on philosophy of facts, see Hudson, 1972; for Metaphysics, see Dilworth, 2006; for Wisdom, see several books by Sternberg, e.g. 1990; on World Hypotheses, Pepper, 1942/70; Unity of Knowledge, Wilson, 1998;
● Philosophy of Science: many general books available and for specific narrower topics see, among others, ‘Conceptual Systems’, Brown, 2007; and Casti, 1989; must-read book by Owen/McKeaon, 1994; Complexity Explained, Érdi, 2008 and Mainzer, 2007; Structure of Science, Vargas-Quesada & de Moya-Anegón, 2007; e.g. hypotheses vs. theories, see Wolf, 2007; for ‘Classifying Science’, see Szostak, 2004; limitations of science & impossibility see Barrow, 1999; for ‘theories of everything’ there are numerous books, e.g. start with Barrow, 1990;
● research philosophy in general (many publications); also consider epistemology & ontology (e.g. Rakover, 1990; Alexiev et al., 2005);
● environmental sciences (Ponting, 1991; Penman, 1992; Meadows et al., 1972; Turekian, 1996; Lovelock. 1988; Raup, 1998; Keys, 1992; Capra, 2003; Lomborg, 2001, 2004; Fagan, 1999, 2004; Davison, 2001; McKibben, 1990; Thayer, 1994; Tuan, 1974; Marsh, 2001; Ackerman, 1974; McPhee, 1989; Smil, 2003; for dams/flood control, an older publication is Peterson, 1954; for economic of environmental problems, see Ashiabor et al., 2005; discourse/rhetoric applied to environmental problems, see Dryzek, 2005; McKibben, 2006; importance of geography/geology in military operations/tactics (see Caldwell et al. 2004; and Wolf, 2005e); and many more especially of more recent vintage-literally hundreds of publications);
● ecological/conservation/evolutionary, etc., biological sciences (e.g. pest control) (e.g. Steadman, 1979; Goudie, 1993; Keys, 1884; McCredie, 1973, 1976/81, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1999; Jones, 1999 and Dawkins, 1996 on evolution; Penman, 1992; Capra, 2003; for ecological economics see Martinez-Alier, 1987 & Sagoff, 1988), climatology/weather predicting (Ahrens, 1994; Houghton et al., 1990; Ross, 1991; Trenberths, 1992; Peixoto/Oort, 1992; Moran/Moran, 1991; Crowley/North, 1991; Cocks, 2003; and Imbrie/Imbrie, 1979; Fagan 1999 & 2004; and Ponting, 1991, on palaeo-climatology), global warming (many books, e.g. Philander, 1998); sustainability (Hargraves/Smith, 2005);
● land management, hydrology cycle time-space analysis; Gaia hypothesis (Lovelock, 1988); including impact studies of deforestation; collapse/demise/failure and survival of civilizations (e.g. Diamond, 2005; an excellent exemplar of application of cybernetic to history/anthropology/archaeology--e.g. Ryan/Pitman, 1998 in a religion/bible-research context, and Keys, 1999, on civilizations) on a global scale without referring to cybernetics or systems research;
● punctuation phenomena (e.g. in biology, environmental research); sustainability analysis von Weizsäcker et al., 1997);
● genetic engineering impact investigations;
● sociology of scientific/technological controversies/disputes and resolution/closure (Engelhardt/Caplan, 1987; Müller et al., 1991; Zeldin, 1994; Capra, 1982; Krimsky, 2003; www.purdeyenvironment.com); Penman, 1992; behavioral sciences/ psychology [dozens of books – e.g. Arnold, 1992; Rakover, 1990—very good!; group dynamics in general by McClure, 2005; statistical sociology of individuals vs. groups see Fuller, 2005; ethology (ethics) by Lorenz, 1981; Dalrymple, 2001, on welfare sociology & group dynamics; research ethics/morality (Krimsky, 2003; Altman/Hernon, 1997; Wolf, 1999); on theology (Jones, 2005);
● sociology in general: innumerable books (including of sociology of science --b especially see Sindermann, 1982, 1985, 1987--see his references; McMullin, 1992; Hayek, 1979; Law, 1986; Capra, 1982; Keys, 1994; Nathan, 1988; Proctor, 1991);
● urban/rural planning, architecture (Brand, 1994; Briggs, 1970; Collins, & Crasemann, 1986; Corbusier, 1986; Dickens, 1956; Garreau, 1991; Hall, 1988; Harvey, 1989; Jacobs, 1961; Katz, 1994; Lynch, 1997; Mitchell, 1995; Mumford, 1961; Rogers, 1997; Sadler, 1998; Sennett, 1969, 1990; Shah, 1996; Weiss, 2000; Williams, 1973; Kleniewski, 2004; Cocks, 2003);
● transport systems analysis (many publications);
● education/pedagogy/training (many publications, but especially see Shamos, 1995, on problems in educating scientists-must read!; Yeaxlee, 1929 on lifelong learning; see Paulston, 1996, for mind-mapping methodology to show transformations or changes in education; Bruner, 1971, on relevance of education; see also Lomborg, 2004; for ‘Graduate Attributes’, generic/tacit abilities, see Hager/Holland, 2000);
● employment/careers (many books, but see Shamos, 1995), welfare (Dalrymple, 2001—must read!); unemployment and poverty dilemmas (including those who refuse to be educated/trained and prefer long-time welfare) (government initiatives have totally failed in many countries; see especially Dalrymple, 2001);
● behavioral sciences, psychology/psychiatry: innumerable books available; for mental illnesses of leaders, see Post/Robins, 1993; for psychology of intellectuals, geniuses, servants, and the likes see Fuller, 2005; Florida, 2004, 2005; for potential evil in all humans (if opportunity allows, e.g. in wars), see Zimbardo, 2007; general philosophy, Zeldin, 1994;
● cultural studies (e.g. for general coverage see During, 2005; Capra, 1982; Jenks, 2005; McRobbie, 2005; Penman, 1992; for what media offers and the changes the past years, including dumbing down/cognitive demands-increase and damage caused--see Johnson, 2005; Furedi, 2004); dynamics studies (e.g. poverty, employment, etc.; see Sanders, 2005);
● economics: innumerable publications with many philosophies, e.g. see Ruelle, 1991; Mirowski, 1989; Smil, 2003; Lomborg, 2004; Hargroves/Smith, 2005; export/import, globalization, finance (trade, investment, fraud detection), general business and commerce/econometrics (Florida, 2003), ergonomics, administration & management (Dettmer, 1998; Pedler et al., 1997; Senge et al., 1998); for cross-fertilization of disciplines, see for example, Martinez-Alier, 1987; Sagoff, 1988); economics as of science, see Mirowski/Sent (2001); economics as science vs. non-science: see Foster (2005) vs. Weintraub (2002);
● globalization: evaluation of globalization of various types (many books); consideration of Kyoto controversies; debunking of conspiracy theories; start with critical books such as Stiglitz, 2002; Isaak, 2005; and Weiss et al., 2004;
● various information, communication, and media technologies (‘innumerable’ publications; for science-communication see Scanlon et al., 1999; and Bryant/Stockmayer, 2001; von Baeyer, 2003), knowledge creation (e.g. Toulmin, 2001; but many more as discussed elsewhere here); for meme, see Blackmore, 1999:
● entertainment/arts, customer services, tourism, demography (numerous books, e.g. Cohen, 1995), linguistics/semiotics, as well as economics (Krugman, 1996; among many more);
● governance-problem analysis; production/profit/cost analysis mission strategy; corporate mis-conduct; for corruption see Lomborg, 2004;
● politics (innumerable publications, e.g. Said, 2002; for systems analysis applied to Government, see McKean, 1958; mathematics in political economy, see Whewell, 1971);
● law/litigation (defense and prosecution-related systems/cybernetic approaches -- in both cases many publications); for Law of the Sea, see Klein (2005) for international law ignored, see Sands (2005); for ‘Rescuing Science From Politics’, see Wagner/Steinzer, 2006; see literature for ‘Experts Witnesses in Court’;
● history – including debunking of history (e.g. Rayner/Stapley, 2002); anthropology (Jones, 2003; Oppenheimer, 2004), archaeology (collapse of civilizations; Penman, 1992; Keys, 1999; Ryan/Pitman, 1998; Braudel, 1993; Fagan, 1999, 2004; Cocks, 2003; Jacobs, 2004), reinterpretations of human history (e.g. Oppenheimer, 2004—very good; Knight/Butler, 2004; Capra, 1982; Keys, 1992; Rayner/Stapley, 2002; Zeldin, 1994), and all other humanities;
● military strategy & operational planning; evaluations of various expert systems and artificial intelligence systems as well as of so-called paradigm shifts.
● terrorism: intelligence studies (counter-insurgency/-terrorism & warfare-tactical cybernetics, see Caldwell et al. 2004; Wolf, 2005e; Roszak, 1986/94, p. 224; Coady/O’Keefe, 2005; Sands, 2005); for intelligence failures and cover-ups, see Collins/Reed 2005);
● peace-building strategy development, conflict-resolution; for sociology/politics of terrorism see excellent book by Berman, 2003/04; Lomborg, 2004);
● disaster, accident, catastrophe, hazards, risks, crises, …, prevention in general (Penman, 1992; Meadows et al., 1972; Posner, 2004; Keys, 1999; McKibben, 2006; Read, 1993 and Ford, 1986 on Chernobyl nuclear disaster; and many more, such as the Mont Blonc road and funicular rail fire tunnel disasters in the European Alps, aside from dozens industrial catastrophes; Dörner, 1989/96) – including earthquake and volcanic-eruption predicting; more recent publications: Rodriquez et al. 2007; Teeuw, 2007; Morris & Kokhan, 2007; Lewis, & Couples, 2007; for crisis theory see Rich, 1997, 2000.
(5) ‘Methodologies’ used in cybernetics
The following ‘methodologies’ (using this as a generic or collective term) are employed in cybernetic-type research:
● thinking/problem solving/cognition and creativity, many books, e.g. by Dennett, 1981/1997; Mayer, 2005; Sloman, 2005; Root-Bernstein, 1991; Zeldin, 1994; Waalace/Gruber, 1989; Rogoff, 1991; Silka 1989; see Warnock, 1976 for a related topic of the importance of ‘imagining’, see Willis/Carden, 2004; for application of rhetoric see Dryzek, 2005; Casey, 1976; Sloan, 1983; for meme, see Blakmore, 1999; for critical reflection & emancipatory learning, see Mezirow, 1990; as to dialectical thinking (see Plumb, 2004, pages 63-5) which deals with numerous ‘convergent theoretical perspectives/concepts’ listed in the Bibliography below;
● logic/illogic, false reasoning, crooked thinking, absolutely see Baggini/Fosl, 2003/07, for tools and methods to reason/argue/analyze properly; see Whyte, 2003, 2004; Bar-Hillel, 1965, not to forget the hundreds of older and modern books!; Künne, 2005, & Fernandez-Armesto, 1998, on truth (many more publications available); Krimsky, 2003, on research ethics, but see especially Altman/Hernon, 1997 & Wolf, 1999b; Bar-Hillel, 1965, on logic; Warburton 1999, on dozens of essays—a good introduction for beginners; Fairclough, 1992, on discourse; for systems thinking and much more, see Senge et al., 1994/98; etc.; checking of various decision-making frameworks;
● objectivity/subjectivity (increasingly more books becoming available, e.g. Randall, 1983; Gillispie, 1960; Greenawalt, 1992; Keller, 1992; Novick, 1988; Rorty, 1991; Albury, 1983; Greenawalt, 1992; Keller, 1992; Novick, 1988);
● determinism (Peat, 1991; Ziman, 2000; Gleick 198/88; Weinberg, 1993; Ruelle, 1991; Mosekilde, 1996; Dowe/Noordhof, 2003);
● reductionsism (Ziman, 2000; Dowe/Noordhof, 2003);
● skepticism, facts vs. fiction vs. beliefs, pseudoscience, superstition – see Shermer (2001, 2002, 2003a, 2003b); dealing with hoax, fraud, mumbo-jumbo-type information, and the likes (skepticism needed, see numerous books, e.g. Wheen, 2004); and so forth.
● expertise: general and specific—many publications and this topic not to be forgotten (see Benveniste, 1977; Collins, 1990; Wolf, 2005e);
● professionalism: general and specific—this too not to be forgotten (see Bledstein, 1976);
● The Scientific Method (innumerable articles and books available; e.g. Schuster/Yeo, 1986; Ziman, 2000; Strahler, 1980; Haines-Young/Petch, 1986; Oldroyd, 1986/89; Moore/Bruder, 1996; Barrow, 1999); research methodology (many books, e.g. Denzin/Lincoln, 1994); specific research problems exemplified by hypotheses vs. theories, see Wolf, 2007; for Military Geography/Geology interpretations, see Caldwell et al., 2004;
● experimentation—general and specific: many publications available (see Gooding et al., 1989; Mauskopf/McVaugh, 1980);
● knowledge creation/manufacture, types, etc. – many books (e.g. Knorr-Cetina, 1981; Knorr-Cetina, 1999; Pepper, 1942/70); for meme, see Blackmore (1999); for philosophy of knowledge see François’ Encyclopedia’s pertaining section;
● related to ‘Nature of Intellectual Styles’ to be matched with problem-solving, etc., see Zhang/Sternberg, 2006;
● rhetoric & discourse (examples: see Corbett, 1971; Dryzek, 2005), logic, and related topics: many books available; for ‘Argumentation and Aggressive Communication’, see Rancer/Avtgis, 2006; for philosophy/methodology of linguistics, see Bar-Hillel, 1970;
● artificial intelligence (many books, e.g. Cummins/Cummins, 2000), futurology/futures studies (see Slaughter 1995, 1996a,b,c) and especially Rescher, 1998; see many other publications; atmospheric science (Gill, 1982; Wallace/Hobbs, 1977), meteorology (Ahrens, 1994), medical/health sciences (among many see McCredie, 1982, 1991, 2000; Matthews, 1995; Girenzer, 2002), examination of alternative health techniques, forensic science/criminology (Evans, 2003, and many more);
● scholarship in general must be highlighted more frequently, see book by Gross (1982/93);
● innovation, discovery, invention (many books, e.g. Root-Bernstein, 1991; Warnock, 1976; Hargraves/Smith, 2005, for applied approach – see ‘thinking’ above );
● experts vs. generalists (Wolf, 2005);
● futurology-related modeling and predictions/forecasting (‘innumerable’ books available; e.g. see Penman, 1992; Meadows et al., 1972; Ponting, 1991; Rescher, 1998; Cocks, 2003; Smil, 2003; Tenner, 1996; Keys, 1994; Zeldin, 1994 Rehm, 1990; Grebeogi/Yorke, 1997; Urry, 2002);
● reinterpretation of organic evolution (e.g. Raup, 1999, on the death of dinosaurs); investigation of interaction/correlation between micro- and larger-scale phenomenon (Sale, 1980, among others); and
● search for a Universality Law or Principle.
(6) ‘Concepts’ used in cybernetics
The following are conceptual, theoretical, philosophical ‘tools’ (again this being a generic, collective expression), some of more-recent vintage, utilized in the study of systems, i.e. in cybernetics: only a few preferentially selected examples can be considered (haphazardly listed again).
● mathematics, statistics, probability; algorithmic-related enigmas (Calude, 1994; Hersh, 1997; Davis/Hersh, 1980/90);
● fuzzy logic application to bacterial and ant systems (see Gordon, 1999; Wilson & Holldobler, 1990) as well as to human heart beats; study and prevention of epidemics and pandemics (e.g. see Garrett, 1994);
● cause/effect relationships, causation, chain/mesh studies -- see many books, e.g. Dowe, 2003; Sloman, 2005; Woodward, 2005; Rakover, 1990; Tenner, 1996;Wilson, 1998; Jantsch, 1980; Casti, 1991, 1994; Dowe/Noordhof, 2003;
● complexity (both organized and disorganized, and micro- to global in scale/size; see Érdi, 2008 and Mainzer, 2007; Waldrop, 1992; Casti, 1994; Hayles, 1991; Flake, 1998; Kauffman, 1995; Lewin, 1992; Prigogine & Nicolis, 1989; Keys, 1994; Stewart & Golubitsky, 1993; Gribbin, 2004; Jantsch, 1980; Ruelle, 1991; Stewart, 1989; Barrow, 1999; Prigogine/Stengers, 1985; Cohen/Stewart, 1994/2000; Yamaguchi, 1998; Tél/Gruiz, 2005; Rich, 1997, 2000; Urry, 2002; Kudo et al., 1997);
● chaos (e.g. Gleick, 1987/88; Peat, 1991; Weinberg, 1993; Wilson, 1998; Jantsch, 1980; Ruelle, 1991; Briggs/Peat, 1989; Stewart, 1989 & 1992; Casti, 1991, 1994; Prigogine/Stengers, 1985; Sardar/Abrams, 1989; Cohen/Stewart, 1994/2000; Yamaguchi, 1998; Tél/Gruiz, 2005; McClure, 2005; Grebeogi/Yorke, 1997; Anderla et al., 1997; Urry, 2002; Mosekilde, 1996; Turcotte, 1997; Field & Golubitsky, 1992; Hall, 1993; Waldrop 1992; Hayles, 1990; Hayles, 1991; Flake, 1998; Lewin, 1992; Sardar, 1999; Gribbin, 2004; Williams, 1997; Gigerenzer et al., 1989; Hacking, 1990; Wilson, 1998; Jantsch, 1980; Dowe/Noordhof, 2003);
● order/disorder (Wiebe, 1967; Rifkin, 1980; Waldrop, 1992; Hall, 1993; Hayles, 1990, 1991; Yates, 1987; Johnson, 1995; Stewart & Golubitsky, 1993; Peat, 1991; Prigogine/Stengers, 1985; Rich, 1997, 2000), open/closed systems;
● non-linearity (Peat, 1991; Gleick, 1987/88; Jantsch, 1980; Briggs/Peat, 1989; Stewart, 1989; Yamaguchi, 1998; McClure 2005; Grebeogi/Yorke, 1997; Kudo et al., 1997; Mosekilde, 1996; Enns/McGuire, 1997);
● fractal geometry analysis (many publications available), e.g. Cello/Malamund, 2006; Peat, 1991; Briggs/Peat, 1989; Gleick, 1987/88; Stewart, 1989; for symmetry see Stewart, 1992; Tél/Gruiz, 2005;
● fuzziness (Demico/Klir, 2003; Kosko, 1994—see his fuzzy cognitive maps), heuristics (Kahnemann et al., 1982), hierarchy (O’Neill, 1988, and many others), non-linearity (De Landa, 1997);
● certainty/uncertainty (Ackerman, 1974; Matthews, 1995; Stigler, 1986; Zeldin, 199); Kahneman et al., 1982; Briggs/Peat, 1989; Prigogine/Stengers, 1985; Minati et al., 2005);
● feedback (Gleick, 19987/88; Jantsch, 1980; Briggs/Peat, 1989);
● attractors (Peat, 1991; Briggs/Peat, 1989; Gleick, 1987/88; Ruelle, 1991; Stewart, 1989; Casti, 1994; Shaw, 1988);
● scale (nano-, micro-, macro, global- to cosmic-scales/sizes) (sub- and super-systems: Murdick/Ross, 1971), bifurcation, connectivity (Capra, 2003); see Penrose/Longair, 2000;
● catastrophe theory (e.g. Postle, 1980; Arnold, 1986; Woodcock & Davis, 1978; Zeeman, 1977; Bourriau, 1992; Jantsch, 1980; Briggs/Peat, 1989; Casti, 1994; Cohen/Stewart, 1994/2000; Rich, 1997, 2000);
● cascading, threshold/barrier concept, minimum requirement law/principle;
● chance (Hacking, 1990; Ruelle, 1991);
● synchronicity (Peat, 1987, 1991) ; various time/space relationships;
● reductionism (Ziman 2000; Wilson, 1998);
● entropy (Rifkin, 1980; Jantsch, 1980; Ruelle, 1991; Prigogine/Stingers, 1985)
● self-replication, self-organization (Eigen/Schuster, 1979; Bak, 1999; Ortoleva, 1994; Hergarton, 2002; Yates, 1987; Kauffman, 1995; Kelso, 1999; Krugman, 1996; Jantsch, 1980; McClure, 2005; Kudo et al., 1997; plus many more), self-similarity, simplicity (Bunge, 1963; Sober, 1975; Stewart, 1989), spatio-temporal evolution, symmetry (e.g. Filed & Golubitsky, 1992);
● randomness problems (Svozil, 1993; Calude, 1994; Gleick, 1987/88; Prigogine?stingers, 1985);
● emergence (Johnson, 2001; Zohar/Marshall, 1993; Jantsch, 1980; Stewart, 1989; Cohen/Stewart, 1994/2000; Urry, 2002; Minati et al., 2005), emerging (Waldrop, 1992; Yates, 1987), entropy, equilibrium;
● hierarchy principles (e.g. Pumain, 2006; Zohar/Marshall, 1993; Jantsch, 1980; Weinberg, 1993; O’Neill, 1988);
● undecidability problems (Svozil, 1993);
● adaptation (Flake, 1998), algorithm, determinism;
● cycles, cause-effect (causality/causation: Salmon, 1984, 1998; Sosa/Tooley, 1993; Mellor, 1995; Arnold, 1992),);
● pattern analysis Kelso, 1999; Stewart & Golubitsky, 1992; Thompson & Bonner, 1961; Ball, 1999; among others),);
● explanation (Salmon, 1984; Cornwell, 2004; Garfinkel, 1981; Humphreys, 1989; Kitcher/Salmon, 1989; Lipton, 2000; Ruben, 1993; Salmon, 1989, 1998; Bronowski, 1978; Woodward, 2005; Giere, 1988); rethinking explanation, Persson/Ylikoski, 2007;
● fact (genesis & development – see Fleck, 1935/1979);
● homogeneity/heterogeneity (Sober, 1975), dissipative structures, irreversibility (Nicolis/Nicolis, 1987), recursive phenomena (Poundstone, 1985);
● scale analysis (Rosswall et al., 1988; O’Neill, 1988; Sale, 1980), emergence, feedback, field theory, fractals (i.e. Theory of Roughness, e.g. Turcotte, 1997; Barnsley, 1988; Flake, 1998; Clarke, 1992; and many more);
● measurements—general and specific (see many publications on measuring techniques, including reliability, errors, etc. – e.g. Cartwright, 1989; Stigler, 1986; on precision, see Wise, 1995); and
● teleology (or consequentialism), threshold, stability/instability, uncertainty (Kahnemann et al., 1982; Needham, 1983; Philander, 1998; Pollack, 2003), even Theory of Everything (Barrow, 1992; Weinberg, 1992), ….
Most entries have more than one section; many covering several pages of text spiced with comparative/contrastive summary tables. (For many definitions-cum-explanations, see Bullock/Trombley, 1999.)
(7) Specific-discipline applications of cybernetics, e.g. Human System Cybernetics
One deleterious aspect of specialization (fragmentation, compartmentalization) and creation of innumerable disciplines is the unescapable result that many professional experts are unaware of other disciplines’ philosophies, data-bases, methodologies and techniques. Those who use cybernetics have the advantage that they are compelled to delve into cognitively/intellectually adjacent or overlapping knowledge domains and then perhaps into more-remote disciplines. Hence, allow some all-too-brief relevant comments by pointing to the specialized restrictive Human System Cybernetics (HSM; see same-named international journal).
(a) One cannot without difficulty clearly separate human (social, psychological, political, educational, economic, etc.) systems from natural (and, consequently, scientific and technological) systems. They all overlap in reality; humans are always involved in dealing with natural complex – so that Human Management (HM)is unequivocally is not isolated. HSM does not even imply that the human aspect is a separate domain – it depends on our experience, interpretation and cognitive ability to find explicit connections. Consider the following.
(b) One could draw a triangle with Human Systems, Natural Systems, and Technological System at its apexes. The three connecting lines (draw in reciprocal arrows) represent continua or spectra of potential conceptual (abstract, theoretical) and concrete (physical, mechanical) interactions. So, all one has to do is visualize that there are three gradations between these Systems, demonstrating various Systems-combinations to which cybernetics is applied. The ratio or proportion of these three types of Systems vary from one investigation to the next. The diagram could be supported or replaced by a comparative-contrastive-type (summary/overview) table.
(c) Although most disciplines are still disconnected (in spite of some successful efforts to integrate many) it has to be emphasized that certain disciplines, like HSM (and sociology, etc.) transcend more domains than their name actually implies. People/humans are involved everywhere, either directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly.
Consequently, reasoning thus makes a case for the fact that the Encyclopedia by François is not restricted to any one particular discipline’s system (can’t think of exceptions, even the fine arts are included), like environmental/ecological, engineering, energy, architectural, and medical systems, are to be considered. All involve the whole gamut of the human disciplines – all of which have to be ‘managed’. A skewed or lopsided, or reductionist approach, would be grossly incomplete, and as many worldwide disasters and catastrophes demonstrate, could be very costly, even in human terms. So, it depends on types of problems to be solved – most human-based knowledge domains overlap with all others; i.e. one has to integrate philosophies, methodologies, and tools to achieve a trans-disciplinary approach. Exceptions to this rule can only be found when strict reductionism is employed.
To counter this limiting approach, system analysis (or research, science, theory) and cybernetics have been formulated, with François’ Encyclopedia as one valuable cognitive contribution.
(8) Why use this Encyclopedia-cum-reference handbook?
This Encyclopedia is not only addressing systems experts but also most individuals involved in any more-complex problem-solving exercises. François’ attempt is to put some order into the myriad aspects of cybernetic concepts and terminologies. Teachers/instructors will use this as a valuable source book.
A quick arm-chair consideration will reveal the following advantageous reasons of this data entrepôt/compendium:
(a) anyone who thinks, decides, plans, describes, discusses, interprets, compares/contrasts, predicts, extrapolates, writes, and edits must now consider a holistic (all-encompassing) (i.e. a cybernetic) philosophy – François’ Encyclopedia provides one of the conceptual or cognitive tools especially for researchers of the many soft, open-system, often seemingly intractable complex systems; see also the Union of International Association (1995) Encyclopedia;
(b) it induces the expert/specialist to broaden his/her perspective to obtain a more global viewpoint (i.e. ‘a narrow specialist’ can easily avoid loosing sight of what a ‘well-qualified generalist’ would be able to visualize, see below and Wolf, 2005e);
(c) to put it differently, the Encyclopedia compels one to become, where necessary, inter-and trans-disciplinary, and multi-professional;
(d) it is a quick introduction to many publications (up to 2004 -- to be supplemented in the future);
(e) it is a tool to enhance creativity, innovation, discovery, invention, even serendipity;
(f) it offers flexibility and induces ingenuity, acuity, accuracy, lucidity, …;
(g) it assists in finding alternatives or counter-examples; and so forth.
(9) Limitations of Encyclopedia & recommendations
As a reviewer who is greatly impressed by this Encyclopedia, I must not shun my professional duty to highlight some mini-limitations and at least one basic disagreement. Also, some recommendations for future editions are proffered.
(A) General comments
(a) The Bibliography is quite good – ranging in date from an occasional rather old (e.g. 1812) to a number of most recent publications of 2004. However, inasmuch as I have collected relevant systems/cybernetic-related books for several decades I found that quite a few post-mid-2004 publications need to be added in a future edition. See, for example, the Bibliography below. Also, some text-mentioned authors are missing in the Bibliography; and some entries are wrong.
(b) Experts vs. generalists. François states in the Introduction that he does not agree that in addition to narrowly educated/trained and experienced experts many complex-systems’ situation demand a well-qualified ‘wise generalist’! However, in the text of his Encyclopedia under ’Generalist (the Role of’) he refers to publications that unequivocally deal with the need for generalists. In this context, see Geison (1981) on emerging specialties; also see Wolf (2005e) on experts vs. generalists semi-quantification scale!
‘Experts’ are even the target for jokes and very irreverent humorous attacks as illustrated by Ford’s (1982) book. I have written an unpublished 110-page comparative/contrastive summary (unpublished) about this dilemma and found that quite a few researchers and practitioners agree that despite a cybernetic approach many catastrophes or disasters worldwide of varies kinds could have been prevented by ‘qualified generalists leading a group of non-communicating experts’.
(c) English. The Introduction is useful, but the publishers’ editor(s) ought to have arranged with a ‘native-English-speaking” researcher to upgrade the often awkward (stilted or quaint?) English, because many of Francois’ statements are difficult to decipher. Also, he uses too many ‘misleading’ colloquialisms. However, this as just a minor criticism; it should not distract from the overall wonderful job.
(d) Expanding the Encyclopedia. Fundamentally, I believe that systems/cybernetics and related studies known under various names, are very important in tackling/solving the worlds problems. The human race seems to be (‘is unequivocally’!) capable to solve certain problems (with exceptions, naturally, like environmental ones), but has failed so far to solve many ‘soft-sciences/disciplines’ dilemmas.
Consequentially, I strongly suggest that François’ Encyclopedia ought to be expanded into three volumes! This Volume 3 should, perhaps, comprise all the references, especially since hundreds need to be added. More important, however, is that it is to offer syntheses and analyses of the application of systems/cybernetics methodologies to all important knowledge domains – maybe in particular to the ‘soft-discipline’ domains.
For example, sociological, educational, psychological, political, economical, cultural, …, problems need to be considered. How do we approach solving the terrorism, poverty, resources (oil, water, etc.) demands – which increasingly will become more severe? How do we settle among us the numerous opposing opinions in regard to what seems obvious?
(B) Recommendations for the Introduction (and/or even a separate special section?!) of future editions
The Introduction of the Encyclopedia offered the opportunity to deal with a few additional important and interesting aspects which where difficult to be assigned a column within the A-to-Z text. However, my proposals below are so widely swerving that possibly a separate section/chapter may be advisable. The suggested topics to be dealt with are as follows --
(i) A brief discussion of cybernetics-pioneering disciplines, as well as of those which have so far neglected cybernetics, could have been provided. For example, from my viewpoint as Earth/Geological Scientist, and Environmental Scientist, the following publications deal with cybernetics-cum-systems analysis of problems in the geosciences: Harvey/Diment, 1978; Demico/Klir, 2003; Griffith, 1972; Nicolis/Nicolis, 1987; Shaw, 1988; Müller et al, 1991; Turcotte, 1997; Hergarten, 2002; Müller/Müller, 2003; Dykes et al., 2004, on Geovisualization). For Physical Geography one could list many dozens of books and a couple of hundred articles (e.g. see Strahler, 1980; Wolf, 1973a, 1973b, 1985).
(ii) Philosophical aspects. Discussion for the need of a Philosophy of Cybernetics might be worthwhile because of many publications dealing with this ‘soft’ approach. François’ Introduction deals with some philosophical aspects, but numerous others were ignored. I cannot refrain from mentioning again the book by Baggini/Fosl (2003/07) (which initiated this essay in the first place) on 87 philosophical cognitive/intellectual tools (best combined with other classical rhetorical and argumentative approaches) to be utilized in any and all communications! The References below lists several dozen books on Philosophical aspects.
Many aspects of Philosophy of Science’s numerous subdivisions (e.g. Methodology) which have a direct explicit (not to mention the indirect/implicit) impact on Systems Theory and Cybernetics must be considered. Let me skimp over just a few.
(iii) Personalities involved. The importance of personality of researchers, sociology/psychology in general (e.g. see biases), attitudes, abilities (degree of inquisitiveness, readiness to continually question things!), experiences, politics, economics, cultural aspects, and so forth, could be deliberated (many publications available, e.g. Zohar/Marshall, 1993; Bauer, 1992, 1995; Pollack, 2003).
One ought to mention here the fact that illnesses (both physical and emotional/psychological) can have a great influence on not only politicians but any leader or any person in regard to performing at work. This includes, of course, researchers, teachers/instructors, …. Highly recommended in this context is the book by Post/Robins (2003).
(iv) The Scientific Method’s place in the cybernetic context would make an invaluable contribution. Also the importance of linguistics, only partly covered in the Introduction, might be interesting (e.g. see Ogden/Richards, 1985, on The Meaning of Meaning). On a higher level of argumentation see Arnold’s (1992) book on The Corrupted Sciences as he deals constructively (his title is a misnomer) with numerous important methodological aspects. As to lifelong learning, all institutions ought to be ‘Learning Organizations’ (Senge et al., 1994/98) – thus ought to utilize automatically a cybernetic philosophy (proper leadership is required for this, as clarified in the same book). Some highfalutin (esoteric) scientific aspects ought to be dealt with by systems/cybernetic experts, such as hyperspace, multidimensional (tenth dimension), ‘Grand Unified Theories’, search for extraterrestrial intelligence, parallel universes, time warps, and other enigmas -- and much more (see Kaku, 1995). Not to forget is the battle between ‘The Two Cultures’ which has been neatly solved by Bauer (1992, 1995). For ‘The Third Culture’, see for instance Brockman (2003).
Absolutely consult the books by Sindermann (1982, 1985, 1987), respectively, on ‘Winning the Games Scientists Play’; ‘The Joy of Science—Excellence and Its Rewards’; and ‘Survival Strategies for New Scientists’. He deals with so many sociological, psychological (and psychiatric?), and political phenomena (including unaccepted dirty ones!) everyone ought to know about. Consult also Shamos (1995) on The Myth of Scientific Literacy (see Bibliography for brief description).
For some general philosophical (and psychological and sociological) science deliberations see (refer to above discussions also): Machlup/Mansfield (1983), Bunge (1963), Sober (1975), Rescher (1984), Barrow (1988/94), Tondl (1973), Poundstone (1985), Johnson (1984), Brown (1997), Laborit (1974), Roszak (1986/94), George (1971), Gould (2003), Murdick/Ross (1971), Mirowski/Sent (1998), Elkana et al. (1978), Müller et al. (1991), Papineau (1996), Shadish/Fuller (1994), Bloor (1991), Hess (1997), Zohar/Marshall (1993), Horgan (1996), Capra (2003), Bauer (1992, 1995), Pollack (2003), Brockman (2003), Fleck (1935/1979), Dewdney (2004), Bryant/Stockmeyer (2001), Scanlon et al. (1999), Bar-Hellel (1965), and many more. Some refer to cybernetics and related methodologies.
So many books now exist (in English alone) about The Scientific Method(s) that one ought to scan all of them (most anyway!) to see what can be used in discussions related to system research and cybernetics (I could provide a fairly long list!).
And then there are the comments about chaostrophes and infomaniacs by Casti (1991/93), educational cybernetics by George (1971), polyconceptualism and creativity by Laborit (1977, p. 214), cybertrends by Brown (1997), education and cybernetics by Talbott (1995, p. 166-9), cybernetics as part of ‘The Theory of Everything’ by Barrow (1990/91), sociocybernetics by Zohar/Marshall (1993), ‘The End of Science’ (Horgan (1996) – all awaiting philosophical deliberations! How about the question as to whether cybernetics is a metaphor (or uses them as a tool)?! Just see the book on ‘Physics as Metaphor’ by Jones (1982)!
(v) Scepticism. As part of The Philosophy of Cybernetics one must also deal with Scepticism/Skepticism as found within the literature of Philosophy of Science. Discussion of skepticism, e.g. see the books on The Limits of Science (Rescher, 1984; Arnold, 1992; Frances, 2005; etc.) might be appropriate. The question as to what the limits of cybernetics are must also be raised, of course. Or are there no skeptics of cybernetics? See also the very irreverent humorous attack on ‘experts’ by Ford (1982). Here belongs also the mention of the Science Wars (see Sardar, 2000) who refers to the following books by Gross et al. (1994, 1996).
Of course, there are many more publications, such as those by Gross et al. (1994), Hacking (1981), Latour & Woolgar (1986), Koertge (1998), Gieryn (1999), Ravetz (1971, 1996, 1999), Herrnstein/Murray (1994), Bernal (1939, 1954), Sarton (1927/1948), Popper (1976), Kuhn (1970), Ziman (1971, 1996), Knorr-Cetina, (1981), Collins/Pinch 91993), Bloor/Barnes (1996), Fuller (1997, 2000), Adas (1989), Barnes (1982), Barnes et al. (1996), Funtowicz/Ravetz (1990), Longino (1990), Midgley (1992), Ravetz (1990, 1996), Selin (1997), Woolgar (1988), Watkins (1984), Brockman (2003; see Jaron Lanier’s section on pages 233-264, ‘One Half of a Manifesto’ (dealing critically specifically with cybernetics).
Part of skepticism and Science Wars are the scientific controversies/disputes, hopefully followed by resolution and closure – see Engelhardt/Caplan (1987) and Müller et al. (1991), among others.
Naturally, one should mention that several countries (e.g. Australia and USA) have journals and associations of Scepticism/Skepticism, the members of which have written books, see for example, Shermer (1991, 2003) and Wheen (2003). Check with the Internet, e.g. www.sceptics.com -- and check the literature on neo-Luddites.
Although François has sections on Psychology a reference to para-psychology might be appropriate because numerous researchers are involved – and, of course, many controversies and disputes exist. Here are at least a couple articles although books exist: see New Scientist (2004). Since coincidence phenomena may be part of the paranormal, see Plimmer/King (2003).
Indeed, several Encyclopedias of Ignorance/Stupidity exist which the reader may wish to trace down, but there are at least two books: van Boxsel’s (2003) and Tabori’s (1962).
Perhaps one should insert here comments about the ‘anti-science and anti-enlightenment sensibility that actually pervades the Academy in the social sciences and humanities’ (Gross et al., 1997). Surely, they too ought to believe in systems/cybernetic philosophies in attempts ‘to save the world’ – instead of establishing a ‘false Intellectual Fundamentalism’! A phrase concocted by myself.
Economists (including the so-called ones of the stockmarket ilk, and now increasingly those involved in ‘handling’ the billions of dollars of the thousands of super-annuations!) have often been exposed by skeptical experts. As to the economists’ methodologies there are thousands of publications available (in English alone). Some of the techniques are highly mathematical – just see the list offered in the Reference below, e.g. Drury (1999); also see the INTERNET. The Culture of Investment is rich in attempts to employ systems/cybernetics! See also Sherden (1998), Bernstein (1996/98), Savory (1999), and Rescher (1998). Businesses practices need to be tackled by systems analysis/cybernetics. Of the hundreds of books: see Christensen (1997/2003).
And in the economic context it is rather clear that systems/cybernetic concepts cannot be expected to be successfully employed in nano-economics problem-solving --i.e. in, say, one-person’s or one-family’s situation. (Note: I just concocted nano- in contrast to micro- and macro-economics!) Possibly the best exemplar is the huge trillion-dollar credit debt by the American public, among other countries. See the illuminating book by Williams (2004).
Consider the specific economic problems of globalization and the various FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) which are increasingly being debated; at least two major schools of thoughts can be easily identified: those pro- versus those con-FTA. See Weiss (1998) and Bhagwati (2004), among many others.
Speaking of economy! Do you realize that there are still ‘officials-cum-bureaucrats-cum-politicians-pseudo-economists’ who refuse to admit that there are negative (deleterious, some rather severe) aspects associated with globalization and the NAFTA/FTA (North American Free Trade Agreement/Free Trade Agreement) phenomena?! Even a simplistic, initial quickie application of systems/cybernetic philosophy would reveal immediately these darker sides! And don’t forget the 100 trillion dollars (or more) floating around in thousands of super-annuation schemes! Beware, beware, beware of shifty experts affecting individuals and group investors as well as the whole country’s economic complex!
Just more-recently (2008/09), we have to deal with the global disasters that began with the United States mis-handling its economy. Alan Greenspan (Greenspan, 2007; Ginsborg, 2008) is attempting to tell us that he (and others) were/are unable to predict such types of financial catastrophes – when in contrast I can list several books that actually five and more years earlier predicted/forecasted some type(s) of economic/fnancial/investement disaster(s)! One group of researchers used Network Theory (together with complexity, chaos, etc., theories) suggesting an imminent financial disaster. Network, systems-analytical, cybernetic methodologies together with other theories must be employed to prevent future catastrophes! Others (e.g. Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University) suggested the ‘prospect theory’ combining ‘psychology of the herd’ and ‘economics of uncertainty’, risk analysis, etc.
Indeed, to be certain, several economic researchers have warned for decades about our so-called ’theories’ (should really be ’hypotheses’; Wolf, 2007) or ‘schools of thought’ right up to recently; see McLean/Renton (1992), Hellyer (1997), Shiller (2000), etc. So, it seems that the simplistic division of banker/financier-gurus into (a) those who aim to make the greatest possible profit for the stockholders (and, of course, for themselves either directly or indirectly), and (b) those researchers engaged in data-collecting, analyzing, modeling, mathematizing, interpreting, extrapolating, predicting/forecasting – all in attempting to understand ‘economic laws’ (well, not really laws like gravity, are they?!) – offers a glimpse into non-communication between the two groups of experts/specialists! Indeed, ‘Democracy is in Crisis and Requires Renewal’ (Ginsborg, 2008)! Do utilize philosophical toolkits á la Baggini/Fosl (2003/07) and systems analysis to get us out of your mess!
(vi) The Battles of Cybernetics (wouldn’t THAT be a nice title for a film?!) could have been dealt with under the rubric of Philosophy of Cybernetics -- i.e. in sections of science wars, controversies, disputes, even skepticism, and related topics. What do I mean by these Battles? Well, two (or more) individuals or groups often defend (to the intellectual death, of course!) their opinions – innumerable examples exists from ancient times to the present. There is neither space nor time, nor need, to offer details- except one social setting: the law or legislation as dealt with in court when the Defense battles the Prosecution and vice versa, usually both sides utilizing so-called Expert Witnesses with various biases. Again innumerable publications are available for both the experts (naturally!) and for laypeople. Here are two books (which I reread three times (and refer to them occasionally): Dawson, Brett, 1998. The Evil Deeds of the Ratbag Profession: in the Criminal Justice System; and Faigman, David, l. 1999. Legal Alchemy: the Use and Misuse of Science in the Law.
(vii) Use diagrams! Question-cum-problem: how to conceptually and holistically interrelate many EFPVs (Entities, Factors, Parametrs, Variables) by preparing NETMAPS á la Union of International Associations’ 1995 Encyclopedia [or concatenation diagrams, or mind maps (as taught to Australian secondary science students; see several books), or linkage models, or flow charts, fuzzy cognitive maps of Kosko, 1994; etc.]? For example, many of the entries in François’ Encyclopedia could be selected to prepare a few such NETMAPS to illustrate this methodology. From François’ Encyclopedia one could select the following sets of EFPVs to practice the construction of NETMAPS and discuss their ‘intellectual power’:
(a) chaos---chance---time---adoptation---dynamic equilibrium---entropy--predictability
(b) initial-condition---fuzziness---non-linearity---complexity---uncertainty---probability---accuracy/precision---coherence---indeterminacy
(c) causality---correlation---simplicity---patterns/morphology---space/time---emergence---randomness (e.g. Calude, 1994)---connectedness---teleology---certainty [vs. undecidability, see Svozil, 1993]
(d) dynamics---catastrophe---self-organization---order---entropy---structure
(e) attractor---fractal---bifurcation---feedback---periodicity---cyclicity---equilibrium—reversibility---dissipative structures---hierarchy
I have done such a job in one of my articles on linguistics (semantics, nomenclatures, lexicography) offering nine simple to more complex diagrams (Wolf, 1993) and in several on modeling (Wolf, 1971, 1973a,b; 1987, 1988).
(viii) Some references to the literature offering examples in the use of cybernetics in various types of problem-solving approaches, e.g. in setting priorities, identification of the weakest link(s) in a chain of interacting EFPVs, among others, would indeed be appreciated.
(ix) The rate of spreading of cybernetics into different fields of endeavour, e.g. exemplified by fuzzy logic and fractals, and other more-recent developments, likewise would be helpful to many researchers.
(x) Horizontal and vertical responsibility/accountability/transparency for lifelong learning would unequivocally have to include attempts to utilize cybernetics (in addition to others requiring a separate deliberation).
(xi) Misconceived gap between science and humanities to be treated constructively: cybernetics can provide one tool for bridging (Gould, 2003; Arnold, 1992; Rakover, 1990 – but see criticism in Brockman, 2003, section by Jaron Lanier, 233-264). A rather unusual, wonderful, logical, cognitive solution to ‘find peace’ in ‘The Battle of the Two Cultures’ (i.e. science vs. non-sciences of various types) has been offered by Bauer (1995) by proposing that we have to accept the existence of ‘Two Types of Knowledge’ – these two arranged along a continuum/spectrum! For ‘The Third Culture’, see Brockman (2003). See also Bauer (1992) and Pollack (2003).
Misconceived gap?! – well some so-called academic (and other) intellectuals appear to consciously/deliberately push this gap! See comments by Gross et al. (1997) – see also Willis/Carden (2004, p. 55).
(xii) Trans-cultural problems (á la Capra and many others), trans-political and trans-national problems which might affect cybernetics warrant a few words.
(xiii) Cybernetics, and many of the related ‘tools of thinking’, assist in creativity, invention, discovery, innovation, and even in setting the stage for serendipity -- among many articles & books see Senge et al., 1994/98; Laborit, 1977, Chapter 13; Brockman, 2003; plus several dozen additional books. The contribution by Zhang/Sternberg (2006) on the ‘32 individual thinking styles matching practical applications’ ought to be considered. Here one should list also ‘varieties of knowledge, knowledge creation’ and related topics – many books available with a snowballing effect: continually new publications make a demand on us! Just one philosophical book: see Toulmin (2001).
(xiv) Research methodology (and aspects on innovation, discovery, inventing) – all directly connected with systems/cybernetic work. Although Francois has a section on these, perhaps more could have been deliberated. See one of the many excellent more-recent books on research by Blaxter et al. (2001).
(xv) Limitations of science, systems/cybernetic approaches. Surely, limitations ought to be deliberated! No further comments here, but numerous publications are available at least related to science/technology. See: Dewdney, 2004; among others.
(xvi) What are the features of cybernetics; i.e. from which broad disciplines does it borrow ideas, concepts, hypotheses/theories, tools of thinking, etc.? Broadly speaking, cybernetics is not only a ‘science’ and is using several technologies (e.g. computers), but it is an ‘art’ requiring several ‘types of tacit and explicit knowledge’ (see Nonaka/Takeuchi, 1995; Von Krogh et al., 1998, 2000; Smith, 2000; Polanyi, 1966). In regard to the latter, one must read the many books on knowledge (the literature is expanding rapidly), but especially those dealing with several generic, tacit and explicit, and enabling types. In the cybernetics’ context one ought to spend a few comments also on skills (not to mention basic literacy and numeracy!), attitude, motivation, experience, aptitude …. (If you don’t agree, tell me why!)
See my 50-page discussions on our Government’s Department of Education, Science and Training Website, related to their Crossroads philosophy as follows:
--www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au
--Go to: Higher Education Review Process
--Then to: 355 submissions (in 1st paragraph)
--Then to: List of Submissions in response to Issues Papers
--Then to: i73 (and i82?) by Dr. Karl H. Wolf
(xvii) Are there other methodologies in addition to cybernetics/systems analysis? Well, Murdick/Ross (1971) compared them to the ‘inductive approach’; others to the ‘analytic’ ones. Is that a logical, reasonable’ comparison? Are there other methodologies or research approaches; perhaps the comparative/contrastive philosophy is a supplementary one?
(xviii) Is the cybernetic methodology (procedure, technique, approach, philosophy, or whatever you prefer) the same for all disciplines and/or problems? No! Thus, a few comments might be helpful. Just to mention that cybernetic investigations certainly are very different when applied to the basic/fundamental/exact sciences in contrast to the derived/hybrid sciences and disciplines because these two groups deal with rather different systems! A comparative/contrastive table can offer a list of these differences.
(xix) Can we classify/group/divide systems/cybernetic research according to various EFPVs (Entities, Factors, Parameters, Variables)? For instance, according to a scalar continuum/spectrum into micro- and micro-cybernetics; local and global cybernetics; etc.?
(xx) Isn’t it important in the context of solving problems in the world to investigate WHO is doing the work? Unequivocally ‘yes’! We have referred to education, universities, research, and all that. We also compared ‘experts/specialists’ with ‘generalists’ (Wolf, 2005e). How about ‘formal studies’ vs. ‘informal ones’; ‘research and problem-solving done by paid employed’ in contrast to ‘independent, unemployed unpaid research’? Well, there has been and still is a very large group of people who contributed tremendously to society throughout the ages; namely The Independent Scholars! Absolutely read the book by Gross, 1982/93! As to the demands of new attributes, abilities, experiences, …, for employees to tackle complex cybernetic problems, see Hager/Holland (2007, and my review thereof).
(xxi) Last, but not least, a list of references to publications proffering examples from each major discipline/knowledge domain where systems/cybernetic methodologies have been utilized would be most welcome. Especially publications should be listed which deal with a complete study, i.e. starting with problem identification, followed by technique/methodology selection, data collection, data manipulation, data evaluation, perhaps even hypothesis/theory construction, …, and data interpretation, and perhaps even (yes, again) extrapolation plus use of the results in extrapolation or forecasting/predicting.
(xxii) All our discussion here demand a deeper involvement of all researchers and practitioners – one has to have the motivation to tackle anything with systems/cybernetic philosophies. Therefore, would it not be logical and reasonable to say a few words about scholarship, intellectualism, education, special mind-set requirements, and numerous related topics? Surely, dumbing down and philistinism is not what we need in solving problems! Here are two books to start with (see references therein): Gross (1993) and Furedi (2004). Why not consult Furedi’s publications first?
(10) Supplementary publications in support of Encyclopedia
As already mentioned, the Encyclopedia is only one intellectual tool, which implies that there are other ‘helpers-cum-toolkits’ utilized by researchers. To hastily refer to one: the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential listed below—see our three reviews (Wolf/Cunningham, 1998abc). Both François’ Encyclopedia and the just-mentioned additional one ought to be used in ‘holistic’ combination during various stages of research as both deal with systems and cybernetics, except that François’ publication is more of a list of concepts (a glossary) of cybernetics rather than dealing with the methodologies or processes of cybernetics. The latter Encyclopedia automatically requests a holistic (or integrative) approach, as does François really, but also offers much additional information on all aspects. The two Encyclopedias are indeed inseparable – use both of them!
Of course, some other Encyclopedias and Dictionaries may offer pragmatic information, e.g. see Bullock/Trombley (1999). And then there is the INTERNET with hundreds of Websites covering just about all problems of all professions or knowledge domains from which one can – with some searching, of course – extract information.
(11) Bibliography
Note: (a) I attempted to avoid listing in this bibliography and in the text those books which are provided by François in his Encyclopedia, i.e. the publications here ought to be considered in the next edition, but a few have been re-listed. (b) Note that some of the books listed below were NOT referred to in the text above, so that any researcher ought to peruse carefully this Bibliography in the search for publications. (c) Too many references?; referring to too many diverse topics or disciplines -- some of which appear to be only obliquely related to systems/cybernetic research? Well, only if one wishes to define some boundary that suggests that this research has certain restrictions – which I don’t believe exists. In other words, systems are everywhere so that cybernetics can be applied to ANYTHING!
● Ackerman, B. et al., 1974. The Uncertain Search for Environmental Quality. Free Press, New York.
● Adas, M., 1989. Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology and Ideologies. Cornell University Press.
● Albert, D., 2000. Time and Chance. C Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, USA.
● Albery, N. (Editor), 1992. The Book of Visions: an Encyclopedia of Social Innovations. Virgin Books, London. (See also Drambo, 1992. Wrongly quoted?)
● Albury, R., 1983. The Politics of Objectivity. Deakin University Press, Victoria, NSW, Australia.
● Altman, E. & Hernon, P. (Editors), 1997. Research Misconduct: Issues, Implications and Strategies. Ablex Publishing Corporation, UK. and USA, 206pp. (See my review, Wolf, 1999.)
● Ahrens, C.D., 1994 (5th edition). Meteorology Today: an Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment. West Publishing, Minneapolis.
● Alexiev, V. et al. (Editors), 2005. Information Integration With Ontologies: Ontology Based Information Integration in an Industrial Setting. John Wiley & Sons, 208pp. (Disparate information causes many problems – the obstacles can be overcome partly by using information grid technology & ontology technology in, say, industry to integrate heterogeneous data to assist decision makers.)
● Anderla, G., Dunning, A. & Forge, S., 1997. Chaotics: an Agenda for Business and Society in the 21st Century. Paeger Publishers, 260pp. (About forces of change, determinisms’ failure, complexity, etc.)
● Arnold, A., 1992. The Corrupted Sciences—Challenging the Myths of Modern Science. Paladin/Harper Collins, London, 389pp. (See also his 1989 book Winners and Other Losers in War and Peace. Both book titles are misnomers as they deal with numerous scientific aspects, including mathematical ones, which ought to be seriously considered.)
● Arnold. V.I., 1986. Catastrophe Theory, 2nd edition. Springer Verlag, New York. (Compact account; emphasizes the mathematics, unfairly scathing about application to the social sciences; Russian view.)
● Ashiabor, H. et al., 2005. Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation. Richmond and Tax Ltd., Sydney, NSW, Australia.
● Baggini, J. & Fosl, P.S. 2003/07. The Philosopher’s Toolkit: a Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods. Blackwell Publishing, 221pp. (A superb must-read book! – with 87 cognitive/intellectual tools to ‘think/reason/argue’ properly.)
● Bak, P., 1999 (new edition). How Nature Works—the Science of Self-Organized Criticality. Springer-Verlag, 215pp. (1997, Oxford University Press.) (Single universal law determines, earthquakes, traffic jams, business, etc. – without warning.)
● Ball, P., 1999. The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature. Oxford University Press.
● Bar-Hill, Y. (Editor), 1965. Logic, Methodology & Philosophies of Science. North-Holland, Amsterdam.
● Barnes, B., 1982. Kuhn and Social Science. Macmillan, London.
● Barnes, B., Bloor, D. & Henry, J., 1996. Scientific Knowledge: a Sociological Analysis. Athlone, London.
● Barnsley, M., 1988. Fractals Everywhere. Academic Press, Boston. (Advanced mathematics text with huge number of pictures; explains fractal image-compression.)
● Baron-Cohen, S., 2003. The Essential Difference: Men, Women, and the Extreme Male Brain. Allen Lane/Penguin Books, London, 263pp. (Why mention THAT book here? Well, the author’s information on Systematizing vs. Systematization is interesting, but even more fundamental for our present context is his Chapter 5. What is Systemizing?, and the six major kinds of systems: Technical, Natural, Abstract, Social, Organizable, and Motoric Systems! Such a very fundamental/basic classification it sometimes needed.)
● Bar-Hillel, 1970. Aspects of Language: Essays in Philosophy of Language, Linguistic Philosophy, and Methodology of Linguistics. North-Holland, Amsterdam. (Only one of this author’s publications, see Internet.)
● Barrow, J.D., 1988. The World Within the World—a Journey to the Edge of Space and Time. Oxford University Press, 415pp.
● Barrow, J.D., 1990. Theories of Everything: the Quest for Ultimate Explanation. Vintage, 223pp. (On chaos, symmetry, chance, complexity, determinism, entropy, mathematics, reductionism, randomness, predictions, mathematics, See also Weinberg, 1992.)
● Barrow, J.D., 1992. Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking and Being. Penguin Books, 317pp. (I would call this meta-philosophy of mathematics. Good reference list too.)
● Barrow, J.D., 1999. Impossibility: the Limits of Science and the Science of Limits. Vintage Books, 179pp. (On uncertainty, linguistics, progress, prediction, futurology types, mathematics, determinism, entropy, complexity/simplicity, intractability, chaos, mathematics, etc.)
● Barrow, J.D., 2002. The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega. Vintage Books, 352pp. (On mathematics, anthropic principle, astronomy, cosmology, physics, chemistry, earth history, and much more!)
● Bauer, H.H., 1992. Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method. University of Illinois Press, 210pp. (Absolutely read this! – very good on certain aspects of The Philosophy of Science.) (See also Pollack, 2003.)
● Bauer, H.H., 1995. Two kinds of knowledge: maps and stories. Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 9, # 2, 257-75. [Very good philosophy in attempt to reduce the battle of ‘The Two Cultures’ (sciences vs. many non-sciences/humanities, etc.). Very interesting indeed is: ‘Spectrum/Continuum of Types of Knowledge’!] (See also his above-listed book; and Pollack, 2003.)
● Bauer, H.H., 1992. Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method. University of Illinois Press, 210pp. (Absolutely read this! – very good on certain aspects of The Philosophy of Science.) (See also Pollack, 2003.)
● Bauer, H.H., 1995. Two kinds of knowledge: maps and stories. Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 9, # 2, 257-75. [Very good philosophy in attempt to reduce the battle of ‘The Two Cultures’ (sciences vs. many non-sciences/humanities, etc.). Very interesting indeed is: ‘Spectrum/Continuum of Types of Knowledge’!] (See also his above-listed book; and Pollack, 2003.)
● Benedick, R.E., 1991. Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet. Harvard University Press.
● Benveniste, G., 1977 (2nd edition). The Politics of Expertise. Boyd & Fraser, San Francisco, CA, USA.
● Berman, P., 2003/04. Terror and Liberalism. W.W. Norton & Company, New York & London, 220pp. (Very good analysis of modern terrorism, religious, etc., problems and how different people interpret them; e.g. see Noam Chomsky’s linguistics!)
● Bernal, J.D., 1939. The Social Function of Science. Routledge, London.
● Bernal, J.D., 1954. Science in History. Pelican, London.
● Bernstein, P.L., 1996/98. Against the Gods: the Remarkable Story of Risk. John Wiley & Sons, 383pp.
● Bhagwati, J., 2004. In Defense of Globalization. Oxford University Press, 308pp. (Authors uses an interesting comparative/contrastive approach in analyzing the pros and cons. See also Weiss, 1998.)
● Blackmore, S., 1999. The Meme Machine. Oxford University Press, 264pp. (On social replicators of ideas, habits, skills, behaviours, inventions, etc. to be transmitted like genes in sociobiology – propose by Richard Dawkins. About creativity, knowledge propagation, cognition, psychology, communication, linguistics, learning.)
● Blanchard, Ph. Et al., 2000. Decoherence: Theoretical, Experimental and Conceptual Problems. Springer Verlag, Berlin.
● Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. & Tight, M., 2001 (2nd edition). How to Research. Open University Press, England/USA, 296pp. (Very good book! See references therein. Of course, there are many others on research, innovation, discovery, inventing, serendipity, and so forth.)
● Bledstein, B., 1976. The Culture of Professionalism. Norton, New York.
● Bloor, D., 1978/1991. Knowledge and Social Imagery. Routledge, London and The University of Chicago Press, respectively. (About sociology of science.)
● Bloor, D. & Barnes, B., 1996. Scientific Knowledge: a Sociological Analysis. Athlone, London. (Argue that it is not so much the observations in science that are ‘theory-laden’ but rather the reports of the observations.)
● Bourriau, J. (Edit.), 1992. Understanding Catastrophe. Cambridge University Press, 213 pp. (A more technical book than those by Postle, 1980; Zeeman, 1977; and Woodcock/Davis,1978. Bourriau covers inter- & cross-disciplinarity, mathematics, etc. – much related to earth history and geology.)
● Brand, S., 1994. How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built. Penguin Books.
● Braudel, F., 1993. A History of Civilization. Penguin Books.
● Briggs, J. & Peat. F.D., 1989. Turbulent Mirror: an Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness. Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 222pp. (A lower-key neat introduction to prediction, randomness, climatology, economics, emergence, creativity, synchronicity, unification, order, chance, attractors, systems science, non-linearity, universality, fractals, reductionism, entropy, feedback, connectivity, Gaia, determinism, mathematics, self-organization, holism.)
● Briggs, A., 1970. Victorian Cities. University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles.
● Brockman J. (Editor), 2003/04. Science at the Edge. Barnes & Noble, USA; Weidenfeld & Nicolson, UK, 408pp. (Very interesting futurologist view of science/technology integration with the humanities = The Third Culture. Twenty-two researchers contributions; refers to cybernetics; eschatology, Moore’s Law; holistic, emergence, complexity, chaos, reductionism, epistemology, creativity & thinking, mathematics, philosophy of science, and much more—with the INDEX being poor!, so a page-by-page scan is required! See many references to more-recent books! See also important scientists’ website: www.edge.org )
● Bronowski, J., 1978. The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination. Yale University Press, 144pp. (Read at least his chapters on ‘Knowledge as Algorithm and as Metaphor’ and ‘The Laws of Nature and the Nature of Laws’ – regarding explanation, Philosophy of Mathematics, and Occam’s Razor.)
● Brown, H.I., 2007. Conceptual Systems. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York, 514pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of General Systems, vol. 37, No. 2, April, 2008, 131-134.)
● Brown, D., 1997. Cybertrends: Chaos, Power, and Accountability in the Information Age. Viking/Penguin Books, 280pp.
● Bruner, J.S., 1971. The Relevance of Education. Norton, New York. (For example deals with ‘the clash between education and freedom ….’ See Paulston, 1996.)
● Bryant, C. & Stocklmayer, S. (Editors), 2001. Science Communication in Theory & Practice. Kluwer Academic Publisher.
● Buchanan, M., 2005. Too much information. New Scientist, 26. Feb., ’05, 32-35. (A new approach to complexity, prediction, uncertainty, among others, through so-called coarse-grained models which ‘leave out most of the details and focus only on the broad-brush descriptions of the pattern-forming process’.)
● Bud-Frierman, L. (Editor), 1994. Information Acumen: the Understanding and Use of Knowledge in Modern Business. Routledge, London.
● Bullock, A. & Trombley, S. (Editors), 1999 (3rd edition). The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. HarperCollinsPublishers, 933pp. (Rather good on definitions-cum-explanations of many of the concepts & terms used here.)
● Bunge, M., 1963. The Myth of Simplicity—Problems of Scientific Philosophy. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 265pp.
● Caldwell, D.R., Ehlen, J. & Harmon, R.S. (Editors). 2004. Studies in Military Geography and Geology. Kluwer/Academic Publishers. (See my reviews in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2006, 498-502; and in The Australian Geologist Newsletter No. 136, Sept. ’05, 46-47, where I mentioned the use of systems theory & cybernetics in military strategy, etc.)
● Calude, C., 1994. Information & Randomness: an Algorithmic Perspective. Springer Verlag.
● Capra, F., 1982. The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture. Flamingo Boos, Fontana Paperbacks, 516pp. (On meta-philosophy/science, predictions, futurology, cultures, psychology, economics, biomedicine, holistics, reductionism, chance, cause/effect, determinism, self-organization, economics, entropy, environments, order, systems science, uncertainty, etc.)
● Capra, F. 1996. The Web of Life: A New Synthesis of Mind and Matter.
● Capra, F. 1988. Uncommon Wisdom. Century Publishers, 334pp.
● Capra, F. 1975. The Tao of Physics. Shambhala Publishers, Berkeley, CA.
● Capra, F., 2003. The Hidden Connections: a Science for Sustainable Living. Flamingo Press, 320pp. (On organizing the world according to different values/beliefs for the survival of humanity as a whole. Much on biology, environments, etc.)
● Carson, R., 2002 (New edition). Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. (Originally published in 1962.) (She uses systems/cybernetic approach without referring to these terms in demonstrating environmental destruction.)
● Carrington, P., Scott, J. & Wasserman (Editors), 2005. Models and Methods in Social Network Analysis. Cambridge University Press, 344pp. (About developments in quantitative models and methods for analyzing social network data.
● Cartwright, N., 1989. Nature’s Capacities and Their Measurement. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
● Casti, J.L., 1991. Searching for Certainty: What Science Can Know About the Future. Abacus Books, 496pp. (An early analysis dealing with attractors, prediction, climatology, economics, catastrophes, chaos, chance, cause/effect, determinism, systems, modeling, randomness, mathematics/probability, and much more. A classical!)
● Casti, J.L., 1994. Complexification: Explaining a Paradoxical World Through the Science of Surprise. Abacus books, 320pp. (On simplicity/complexity, catastrophe theory, cause/effect, chaos, determinism, randomness, systems science, emergence, attractors, prediction, mathematics, economics, fractals, hierarchy, modeling, patterns, reductionism, etc.)
● Casti, J.L., 2000. Paradigms Regained—a Further Exploration of the Mysteries of Modern Science. Little, Brown & Co. (and Abacus Books), London, 287pp.
● Casey, E., 1976. Imagining: a Phenomenological Study. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. (See also Sloan, 1983.)
● Cello, G. and Malamud, B.D. (Eds), 2006. Fractal Analysis for Natural Hazards. Geological Society of London, Special Publication No. 261, 172pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 37, No. 5, Oct. 2008, 642-643.)
● Christenson, C.M., 1997/2003. The Innovator’s Dilemma: the Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business. HarperBusiness Essentials, Harper/Collins Publisher, 287pp.
● Clarke, A.C., 1992. The Colours of Infinity. Strange Attraction, London. (All about Mandelbrot set—mathematics.)
● Coada, T. & O’Keefe, M. (Editors), 2005. Righteous Violence: the Ethics & Politics of Military Intervention. Melbourne University Press, 238pp. (Since WWII military intervention was largely rejected on moral, political and legal grounds in contrast to recent civil and ethnic wars where ethical thinking has changed. Terrorism too requires a change. How can cybernetics insist?)
● Cocks, D., 2003. Deep Futures: Our Prospects for Survival. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston, Canada; and University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 332pp. (Very good – with good Bibliography. Deals with future o humanity using positive approach; provide data on whole spectrum of environmental enigmas. MUST read!)
● Cohen, J.E., 1995. How Many People Can the World Support? W.W. Norton, & Company, New York/London, 532pp. (Very good on numerous scientific and methodological aspects: see for Law of Information, Law of Action, Law of Prediction, mathematics/statistics, modeling, uncertainty, constraints, environments, and much more.)
● Cohen, J. & Stewart, I., 2994/2000. The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World. Penguin Books, 496pp. (On emergence, catastrophe theory, models, etc.)
● Collins, H., 1990. Artificial Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent Machines. MIT Press.
● Collins, G.R. & Collins, C.C., 1986. Camillo Sitte: the Birth of Modern City Planning. Rizzoli, New York.
● Collins, L. & Reed, W., 2005. Plunging Point: Intelligence Failures, Cover-ups and Consequences. Fourth Estate/HarperCollins Publishers, London, New York, etc.
Cornwell, J. (Editor), 2004. Explanations—Styles of Explanations in Science. Oxford University Press, 238pp. (Numerous other books are listed in this Bibliography, see text. The present book deals with differences between scientists’ and philosophers’ explanations; variations between disciplines, times and cultures in general – and existing boundaries; refers to mathematics, social/anthropological domains, teleology, reductionism, ontology, epistemology, interpretation, hierarchy of sciences; see flowchart on p. 69 regarding the Scientific Method and table 1.1 (p. 9) of ‘Conceptions of Understanding’.)
● Corbett, E.P.J., 1971 (2nd edition). Classical Rhetoric: for the Modern Student. Oxford University Press, 653pp. (This is a good introduction on argumentation, fallacies, logic, etc., but many more publications exist!)
● Corbusier, L., 1986. Towards a New Architecture. Dover Publications, New York.
● Crichton, M., 2004. State of Fear. HarperCollinsPublishers, 603pp. (See excellent Bibliography and critical evaluations of global environment and climatic system. BUT BEWARE! His approach is anti-global warming and not well accepted by scientists; so see many other more-authoritative books and articles!)
● Crowley, T.J. & North, G.R., 1991. Paleoclimatology. Oxford University Press, New York.
● Cummins R. & Cummins, D.D. (Editors). Minds, Brains and Computers. Blackwell Publisher. (On philosophy of mind, especially artificial intelligence.)
● Curd, M. & Cover, J.A., 1998. Philosophy of Science: the Central Issues. Norton, & Co.
● Dalrymple, T., 2001. Life at the Bottom: the Worldview that Makes the Underclass. Ivan R. Dee, Publishers, Chicago, ILL, USA, 185pp. (An absolute must to read – if you wish an example where sociological/political cybernetics has failed! ‘It takes more than the scientists/intellectuals to tango!’)
● Daston, L., 1988. Classical Probability in the Enlightenment. Princeton University Press.
● Davison, A., 2001. Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability. State University of New York Press. (See also McKibben, 1989.)
● Davis, P.J. & Hersh, R., 1980/1990. The Mathematical Experience. Penguin Books, 440pp. (Good on Philosophy of Mathematics—classification of mathematics, modeling, and much more. See also Hersh, 1997, ….)
● Dawkins, R., 1996. Climbing Mount Improbable. Penguin Book. (How complexity of life can be accounted for through small incremental changes brought about by evolution.)
● Dawkins, R., 1998. Unweaving the Rainbow. Penguin Book. (A scientific analysis.)
● Dawson, Brett, 1998. The Evil Deeds of the Ratbag Profession: in the Criminal Justice System. Self-published by author, Wombye, Queensland, Australia, 404pp. (Let your book shop get copy for you as they have updated information on more recent availability sources. See also my review: Wolf, 1999.) (Author is a lawyer with several decades of experience. This book is an absolute gem to read. Better than any crime novel! Trust me! -- as the phrase goes! See also Australia’s Whistleblowers Newsletter on the INTERNET: www.whistleblowers.org.au )
or www.anti-corruption-network.org.au
or www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/
● De Landa, M., 1997. A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History. Zone Books, Swerve Editions.
● Demico, R.V. & Klir, G.J. (Editors), 2003. Fuzzy Logic in Geology. Academic Press, 350pp.
● Dennett, D.C., 1981/1997. Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology. Penguin Books, 353. (An earlier treatment of cognition and all that. See references to publications. But then consult the hundreds of other recent publications!
● Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Editors), 1994. Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage Publications, London.
● Dettmer, H.W., 1998. Breaking the Constraints to World-Class Performance. ASQ Quality Press, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, 288pp. (About theory of systems constraints, cause-effect, transition trees, and much more.)
● Deutsch, D., 1997. The Fabric of Reality. Allen Lane Publisher.
● Dewdnay, A.K., 2004. Beyond Reason—Eight Great Problems that Reveal the Limits of Science. John Wiley & Sons, 224pp. (About chaos, unpredictable systems, intractable problems, algorithm, attractors, complexity, meta-mathematics, determinism, fractals, thought experiments, knowledge, prediction, deduction vs. induction, etc.)
● Dickens, C., 1956. Bleak House. Houghton-Mifflin, Riverside Edition.
● Diamond, J., 2005. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. Penguin Books, 573pp. [Must read!—as he uses cybernetics without referring to this technical term; use of many EFPVs; many very open soft systems studied by the ‘comparative’ and ‘natural experiment methodology’; post- & predictions; and much more! Deals with collapse of civilizations based on environmental factors (ecology, climatology, agriculture, water resources, paleo-sociology/cultures, etc.); author offers/discusses: 8 categories of destructive forces, influenced by 4 complications, arrived at a 5-point framework of contributing factors, refers to ‘comparative’ and ‘natural-experiment-type’ methods; deforestation-induced collapses are graded on a numerical scale and graded values of 9 input variables … using statistical analysis to calculate the relative strength with which each input variable predisposed the outcome of deforestation. Major social problems: groupthink/group decision, influence of globalization in modern world. Any systems/cybernetic researchers can use this book (together with the earlier book listed by Francois’ Encyclopedia: Diamond, 1997/8) as a fine exemplar of interplay of dozens of EFPVs (Entities, Factors, Parameters, Variables).]
● Dilworth, C., 2006 (2nd edition). The Metaphysics of Science: an Account of Modern Science in Terms of Principles, Laws, and Theories. Springer Verlag, 333pp. (You really ought to read the review by K.H. Wolf in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 36, No. 5, Oct. ’07, 600-603.)
● Dörner, D., 1989/96. The Logic of Failure—Recognizing & Avoiding Error in Complex Situations. Basic Books/Perseus Book, New York, 222pp. (About catastrophes, disasters, etc.)
● Dowe, P., 2003. Cause and Chance: Causation in an Indeterministic World. Routledge Publisher, 224pp. (About cause/effect, unpredictability, counterfactual theories, etc.)
● Drambo, L., 1992. The Book of Vision: an Encyclopedia of Social Innovations. Virgin Books, London. (See Albery 1992. Wrongly quoted?) “Tomorrow is born of today’s decisions and actions. To create you need tools: knowledge, experience, insights and methods.’)
● Drury, B., 1999. Tools of the trade: What can today’s investors learn from a 13th- century monk? Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, 30. Jan. ’99, p.56. [Mathematics/statistics/probability (e.g. Dow Theory, Fibonacci Numbers, Elliott Wave Theory, WD Gann) utilized by economists, stockmarket gurus!! – to enhance market theory. See Internet for these four listed approaches. What is the success rate, really?!)]
● Dryzek, J.S., 2005 (2nd edition). The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses. Oxford University Press, 261pp. (Sophisticated modern approach to environmental problems; survivalism, environmental problem-solving & sustainability, green radicalism; good on discourse & rhetorical devices, including much on use of metaphors; experts & administrative rationalism, democratic pragmatism, economic rationalism; etc., MUST read.)
● During, S., 2005. Cultural Studies: a Critical Introduction. Routledge Publishers. (See also Jenks, 2005; McRobbie, 2005.)
● Dykes, J., MacEachren, A.M. & Kraak, M.-J., 2004. Exploring Geovisualization. Pergamon, 700pp. (Interactive mapping techniques ….)
● Eigen, M. & Schuster, P., 1979. The Hypercycle: a Principle of Natural Self-Organization. Springer Verlag.
● Eigen, M. & Winkler, R., 1981/1993. Laws of the Game—How the Principles of Nature Govern Chance. Princeton University Library, 347pp. (Very technical.)
● Elkana, Y., et al., 1978. Toward a Metric of Science: The Advent of Science Indicators. John Wiley & Sons, New York. (About ‘science indicators’, e.g. ‘science of science’.)
● Ellyard, P., 1998/1999. Ideas for the New Millenium. Melbourne University Press.
● Engelhardt, H.T. & Calan, A.L. (Editors), 1987. Scientific Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disputes in Science and Technology. Cambridge University Press, 639pp. (A must to read! – see also Müller et al., 1991) and www.purdeyenvironment.com related to scientific disputes/controversies, etc.)
● Enns, R. & McGuire, G., 1997. Non-linear Physics With MAPLE for Scientists and Engineers, Volume 1 & 2. Birkhauser Verlag. (On integrated approach for all disciplines.)
● Érdi, P., 2008. Complexity Explained. Springer Verlag, 397pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol.37, No. 5, Oct. ’08, 637-639.)
● Evans, C. 2003. A Question of Evidence: the Casebook of Great Forensic Controversies, from Napoleon to O.J. John Wiley & Sons, 250pp.
● Eykhoff, P., 1974. System Identification—Parameter and State Estimation. John Wiley & Sons, 510pp.
● Fagan, B., 1999/2000. Floods, Famines and Emperors: El Niño and the Fate of Civilizations. Pimlico Books, Random House, 284pp. (Very easy reading; good analysis with well-done maps and time-tables. Regarding paleo-climatology, paleo-oceanography, etc.)
● Fagan, B., 2004. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization. Granta Books, London, 284pp. (About climate-study methodologies and techniques; deals with period from 18,000 BC to present time; well-illustrated.)
● Faigman, David, l. 1999. Legal Alchemy: the Use and Misuse of Science in the Law. W.H. Freeman & Co, New York. 233pp. (Very good, very interesting! Faigman wrote several other excellent books and numerous articles. Compare/contrast with Dawson’s book.)
● Fairlight, N., 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Blackwell, London. (It seems that the ‘words of an academic community, or a bureaucratic community, or even a learning community can be accepted at face value when the anti-visionist hegemony wheels of power have commandeered much of the language of democracy and freedom.’)
● Fernandez-Armesto, F., 1998. Truth: a History and a Guide for the Perplexed. Black Swan, London. (About redefining social truth; and much more in the context of ecological/environmental problems, etc.)
● Field, M.J. & Golubitsky, M., 1992. Symmetry in Chaos. Oxford University Press, New York.
● Fleck, L., 1935/1979. Genesis and Development of a Scientific Tact. University of Chicago Press.
● Flake, G.W., 1998. The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., USA.
● Florida, R., 2003. The Rise of the Creative Class. Pluto Press, Australia, 404pp. (An earlier American edition is also available.)
● Florid, R., 2005. The Flight of the Creative Class—the New Global Competition for Talent. HarperCollinsPublishers, 326pp.
● Ford, B.J., 1982. The Cult of Expert. Corgi Books. London, 192pp. (A humorous, highly irreverent attack! Just to amuse you!)
● Ford, Daniel, 1986. Meltdown. Simon & Schuster, New York. (On the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear accidents: AEC cover-up of safety in early days of American Nuclear Power Industry. See also Read, 1983.)
● Foster, J., 2005. Why is Economics Not A Complex System Science? Discussion Paper No. 336. School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia – see www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/MacroCAS.Foster (See Weintraub, 2002.)
● Frances, B., 2005. Scepticism Comes Alive. Clarendon Press, 200pp. (Epistemology; philosophers counter radical skeptics; entertaining/provocative; experts’ mistakes; sceptical hypotheses.)
● Fuller, S., 1997. Science. Open University Press, Buckingham.
● Fuller, S., 2000. The Governance of Science. Open University, Buckingham.
● Fuller, S., 2000. Thomas Kuhn: a Philosophical History of Our Times. University of Chicago Press.
● Fuller, S., 2005a. Faces in the crowd. New Scientist, 4. June ’05, page 21. (Sociology studies of individuals vs. of large masses or groups: controversial. Basic problem: parts vs. the whole!)
● Fuller, S., 2005b. The Intellectual. Icon Books.
● Furedi, F., 2004. Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone—Confronting 21st century Philistinism. Continuum Publisher, London & New York, 167pp. (A wonderful treatment of many interrelated topics such as culture, elitism, creativity, dumping down, education, knowledge, etc. – with a very good reference list.)
● Funtowicz, S. & Ravetz, J.R., 1990. Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy. Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
● Garfinkel, A., 1981. Forms of Explanations. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. (Good account of meaning of explanation.)
● Garreau, J., 1991. Edge City: Life on the Frontier. Doubleday, New York.
● Garrett, L. 1994. The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Control. Virago Press, London, 750pp.
● Geison, G.L., 1981. Scientific change, emerging specialties, and research schools. History of Science, vol. 19,20-40.
● George, F.H., 1971. Cybernetics. Teach Yourself Books, St. Paul’s House, London, 194pp.
● Giere, R.N., 1988. Explaining Science. University of Chicago Press. (Philosophy of scientific theories: features/instances approach.)
● Gieryn, T., 1999. Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line. Chicago University Press.
● Gigerenzer, G., 2002. Reckoning With RISK: Learning to Live With Uncertainty. The Penguin Press. (Rather good introductory text on RISK applied mainly to the health/medical science problems. As to other books on risk, there are over 20 I know of, but will not be listed here! See separate section here for comments on risk.)
● Gigerenzer, G. et al., 1989. The Empire of Chance: How Probability Changed Science and Everyday Life. Cambridge University Press.
● Gigerenzer, G. & Murray, D.J., 1987. Cognition as Intuitive Statistics. Erlbaum, Publisher, Hillsdale, NJ, USA.
● Gill, A.E., 1982. Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics. Academic Press, New York.
● Gillispie, C., 1960. The Edge of Objectivity. Princeton University Press.
● Ginsborg, P. 2008. Democracy: Crisis and Renewal. Profile Books, 166 pp.
● Gleick, J., 1987/88. Chaos: Making a New Science. Cardinal Publishers, London, 352 pp. (THE fundamental book is Chaos theory; dealing also with order, randomness, forecasting, non-linearity, fractals, attractors, scale controls. But many other more-recent books available!)
● Gooding, D. et al. (Editors), 1989. The Uses of Experiments. Cambridge University Press.
● Goodman, N., 1983 (4th edition). Fact, Fiction and Forecast. Harvard University Press. (On the whole issue of induction.)
● Gordon, D., 1999. Ants at Work: How an Insect Society is Organized. Free Press, New York. (See also Wilson & Holldobler, 1990.)
● Goudie, 1993 (3rd edition). The Nature of the Environment. Blackwell, London. (Well-explained ecology book.)
● Gould, S.J., 2003. The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister’s Pox—Mending and Minding the Misconceived Gap Between Science and the Humanities. Vintage, 274pp.
● Gower, B., 1997. Scientific Method. Routledge Publisher.
● Grebeogi, C. & Yorke, J.A. (Eds), 1997. The Impact of Chaos on Science and Society. Stationary Office Books, 401pp. (On attractors, non-linearity, networks, mathematics, applied to several disciplines: politics, economics, biology, medicine, sociology, earthquake prediction, ….)
● Greene, B., 2000. The Elegant Universe. Vintage, New York. (On big bang, cause-effect, chaos, complementarity principle, cycles, decoherence, energy, entanglement, entropyequivalence principle, grand unifying theory, hidden variables, observation, probability, reality, relativity, scale, space, spacetime, superstring theory, symmetry, time, uncertainty principle, unification, universe, …. )
● Greenewalt, K., 2002. Law and Objectivity. Oxford University Press.
● Greenspan, A., 2007. The Age of Turbulence – Adventures in the New World. Penguin Books, 544 pp.
● Gribbin, J.2000. The Case of the Missing Neutrinos. Penguin Publisher. (Collection of articles on science raising many issues.)
● Gribbin, J., 2002. Science: a History. Allen Lane Publisher.
● Gribbin, J., 2004. Deep Simplicity: Chaos, Complexity & the Emergence of Life. Penguin Books, 251pp. (Covers, fractals, self-similarity, self-regulation, self-organization, networks, entropy, feedback, linearity, mathematics, predicting/forecasting, etc.)
● Griffith, J.C., 1972. Cybernetics-geomathematics interaction. The Geological Society of America, Special Paper 146, 87-94. [Hardly ever do geoscientists and physical geographers (see Strahler 1980, among others, use the term ‘cybernetics’ but instead use ‘modeling’ and several other terms! Yet, it is exactly ‘cybernetics, systems analysis’ … they use nearly all the time! See also Nicolis/Nicolis, 1987; Ortoleva, 1994; Shaw, 1988.]
● Gross, P. & Levitt, N., 1994. Higher Superstition: the Academic Left and Its Quarrels With Science, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, page 2.
● Gross, P., Levitt, N. & Lewis, M. (Editors), 1996. The Flight from Science and Reason. Academy of Sciences, New York. (Just one quote: ‘… an anti-science and anti-enlightenment sensibility actually pervades the Academy in the social science and humanities’; see also Willis/Carden, 2004, p. 57.)
● Gross, R., 1982/1993. The Independent Scholar’s Handbook. : the indispensable guide for the stubborn intelligence. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA, USA, 302pp. (An absolute must to read! On work done by scholars outside the universities and other institutions in the past and today, exemplified by Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and many others! See references. The book is out-of-print; but available on a Canadian University’s Website.)
● Guth, Al., 1997. The Inflationary Universe. Perseus, Reading, Mass, USA.
● Hacking, I. (Editor), 1981. Scientific Revolutions. Oxford University Press.
● Hacking, I., 1990. The Taming of Chance. Cambridge University Press. (The way in which the gathering of statistics led social scientists to frame laws that predicted outcomes.)
● Hager, P. & Holland, S. (Eds), 2007. Graduate Attributes, Learning and Employability. Springer Verlag, 307pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review on the online of academici 2008 Website.)
● Haines-Young, R. & Petch, J.,1986. Physical Geography: Its Nature and Methods. Harper & Row, Publishers, Cambridge and New York, 230 pp. (Very good beyond geography – for any discipline!)
● Hall, N. (Editor). 1993. Exploring Chaos: a Guide to the New Science of Disorder. Norton, New York.
● Hall, P., 1988. Cities of Tomorrow: an Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the 20th Century. Blackwell Publishers.
● Hancock, P.L & Skinner, B.J. (Editors), 2000. The Oxford Companion to the Earth. Oxford University Press, 1174pp. (Very good!)
● Hargroves, K.C. & Smith, M.S., 2005. The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century. Earthscan Publisher, London, and Sterling, VA, USA, 527pp. (A wealth of information on many present problems/topics: a must to consult.)
● Hartz, J. & Chappell, R., 1998. Worlds Apart: How the Distance Between Science and Journalism Threatens America’s Future. First Amendment Center, Vanderbilt University (Scientists vs. media.)
● Harvey, A.P. & Diment, J.A. (Editors), 1978. Geoscience Information. Broad Oak Press Ltd., England, 450pp.
● Harvey, d., 1989. The Urban Experience. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md, USA.
● Hawking, S. & Penrose, R., 1996. The Nature of Space and Time. Princeton University Press.
● Hayek, F., 19979. The Counterrevolution of Science. Liberty Press, Indianapolis, USA.
● Hayles, N.K., 1990. Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science. Cornell University Press.
● Hayles, N.K., 1991. Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science. University of Chicago Press.
● Hellyer, P., 1997. The Evil Empire: Globalization’s Darker Side. Chimco Media, Toronto, Ontario, 118 pp. (See References!)
● Hergarten, S., 2002. Self-Organised Criticality in Earth Systems. Springer-Verlag, 272pp.
● Herrnstein, R. & Murray, C., 1994. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. Free Press, New York. (An exemplar of misuse of science in eugenics.)
● Hess, D., 1997. Science Studies: an Advanced Introduction. New York University Press.
● Hesse, M.B., 1963. Models & Analogies in Science. Sheed & Ward, London.
● Horgan, J., 1996. The End of Science—Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age. Little, Brown and Company, 324pp.
● Houghton, J.T., Jenkins, G.J. & Ephraums (Editors), 1990. Climate Change: The IPCC Scientific Assessment. Cambridge University Press, New York.
● Hudson, L., 1972. The Cult of the Fact. Jonathan Cape Ltd., London.
● Humphries, P., 1989. The Chances of Explanation. Princeton University Press.
● Imbrie, J. & Imbrie, K.P., 1979. The Ice Age: Solving the Mystery. Harvard University Press.
● Isaak, R.A., 2005. The Globalization Gap: How the Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Left Further Behind. Financial Times Prentice Hall, 275pp. (How globalization is spreading poverty, disease, and disintegrates cultures – and much more of social, political, etc. importance.)
● Isard, W., 1975. Introduction to Regional Science. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. (An interdisciplinary field focussing on the integrated study of several disciplines using mathematical models, for example.)
● Jantsch, E., 1980. The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution. Pergamon Press, 343pp. (Early book dealing also with hierarchy, emergence, chance, chaos, complexity, connectivity, entropy, feedback, non-linearity, reductionism, randomness, among others.)
● Jacobs, J., 2004. Dark Age Ahead. Random House, 241pp. (About five central pillars of our society that show serious signs of decay -- it can be reversed. If not is there another collapse of our civilization inevitable?)
● Jenks, C., 2005. Cultural Second Edition. Routledge Publishers. (See also During, 2005; McRobbie, 2005.)
● Jones, L. (Editor), 2005 (2nd edition). Encyclopedia of Religion. Thomson & Gale Publishers, New York, London, etc. (See volume 3, page 2111-12, for cybernetics.)
● Jones, R.S., 1982. Physics as Metaphor. University of Minnesota Press, 254pp. (Author deals with creative metaphors in science exploding assumptions of objectivity .)
● Jacobs, J., 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage, New York.
● Johnson, G., 1995. Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order. Vintage, New York.
● Johnson, S., 2001. Emergence: the Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software. Penguin Books, 288pp. (Emergence: changes that occur from the bottom up – when enough individual elements interact and organize themselves to form collective intelligence – even though no one is in charge. It occurs at every level of experience.)
● Johnson, S. 2005. Everything Bad is Good for You. Allen-Lane Publisher. (Cultural study about what the media offers and the changes during the past decades –- e.g. dumbing down vs. increase in cognitive demands through TV and computer changes, etc.)
● Johnson, T., 1984. The Commercial Application of Expert Systems Technology. Ovum Ltd, London, 500pp.
● Jones, S., 1999. Almost Like a Whale. Doubleday Publisher. (Modern account of evolution.)
● Jones, S., 2003. The Descent of Men. Abacus Book. (See for ‘naturalistic fallacies’.)
● Kahnemann, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A. (Editors), 1982. Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge University Press, 555pp.
● Kaku, M., 1995. Hyperspace -- a Scientific Odyssey Through the 10th Dimension. Oxford University Press, 359pp. (Much esoteric data and debates here. On causality, entropy death, holism, unification, etc. Question: how can systems analysis/cybernetics assist here?)
● Kalan, R.S. & Norton, D.P. 2004. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes. Harvard Business School Press, 454pp. (See www.bscol.com/toolkits.)
● Katz, P., The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community. McGraw-Hill.
● Kauffman, S., 1995. At Home in the Universe: the Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. Oxford University Press.
● Keller, E.F., 1985. The paradox of scientific subjectivity. Annals of Scholarship, vol. 9, 135-153.
● Kelly, K., 1994. Out of Control: the New Biology of Machines. Fourth Estate Publishers, London, 666pp. (Good! Unusual! On biology-human system-comparison, complexity, emergence, closed/open systems, ecology, economics, change, prediction, laws of God, hierarchies, entropy, cause/effect, chaos, connectivity, feedback, Gaia, knowledge, networks, prediction, randomness, self-organization, swarm systems, etc.)
● Kelso, J.A.S., 1999. Dynamic Patters: the Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior. MIT Press.
● Kendall, E.K. & Kendall, J.E., 1995 (3rd edition). Systems Analysis & Design. Prentice-Hall Publishers.
● Keren, G. & Lewis, C. (Editors), 1993. A Handbook for Data Analysis in the Behavioral Sciences: Methodological Issues. Erlbaum Publishers, Hillsdale, NJ, USA.
● Keys, D., 1999. Catastrophe: an Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World. Arrow Books, 509pp. (On climatology, cultures, history, anthropology, archaeology, disasters, catastrophes, cause/effect, dating, evidence, earth sciences/geology, environments, etc.)
● Kirschner., R., 2002. The Extravagant Universe. Princeton University Press.
Kitcher, P. & Dalmon, W. (Editors), 1989. Scientific Explanations. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
● Klein, N., 2005. Dispute Settlement in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Cambridge University Press.
● Kleniewski, N., 2004. Cities and Society. Blackwell Publishing, 352pp. (About urban sociology.)
● Knauss, J.A., 1997. Introduction to Physical Oceanography. Prentice-Hall Publishers.
● Knight, C. & Butler, A., 2004. Civilization One: the World is Not as You Thought It Was. Watkins Publishers, London, 258pp.
● Knorr-Cetina, K.D., 1981. The Manufacture of Knowledge: an Essay on the Constructivist & Contextual Nature of Science. Pergamon Press, Oxford. (About industrial science manufacturing both the ‘facts’ of science and the ‘truth’ they are supposed to express, so did Collins, & Pinch , 1993.)
● Knorr-Cetina, K.D., 1999. Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Harvard University Press. (On mathematics & science, anthropology, theory of knowledge.)
● Koertge, N. (Editor). 1998. A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science. Oxford University Press, New York.
● Kosko, B., 1994. Fuzzy Thinking—the New Science of Fuzzy Logic. Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, 318pp.
● Kuhn, T., 1970. Criticism and The Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press.
● Kuhn, T., 1979 (new edition). The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. University of Chicago Press, 390pp. (Author sets out five characteristics of a good scientific theory: accuracy, consistency, scope, simplicity, and fruitfulness.)
● Künne, W., 2005, 2005. Conception of Truth. Clarendon Press, 508pp. (Critical examination of all major theories. With flow-chart comprising sixteen key questions.)
● Krimsky, S., 2003. Science in the Private Interest: Has the Lure of Profits Corrupted Biomedical Research? Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc., New York & Oxford, 248pp. (Just another eye-opener! Many reports like this one are available see references. Deals with university-industry collaborations, ethos of academic research, professors’ conflict of interest, bias, morality/ethics, knowledge as property, etc.)
● Krüger, L. et al. (Editors), 1987. The Probabilistic Revolution: vol.1-Ideas in History; vol. 2- Ideas in the Sciences. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
● Krugman, P., 1996. The Self-Organizing Economy. Blackwell Publishers.
● Kudo, K., & Tamagawa, Y. (Eds), 1997. Complexity and Diversity. Springer Verlag, 210pp. (On non-linearity, self-organization, inter-disciplinarity, ecology, economic, sociology, mathematical systems, etc.)
● Laborit, H., 1977. Decoding the Human Message (Cybernetics & Information Technology). Allison & Busby, London, 239pp.
● Lang, D.W., 1970/80. Critical Path Analysis. Computer Science Studies. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 217pp.
● Laughin, R., 2004/5. A Different Universe. Basic Books. [About achievements of modern physics; reductionism (pros and cons); ‘at certain levels of complexity, new laws of physics emerge and govern behavior –but no “bottom-up” approach based parts-vs-whole holistics’—therefore new Age of Emergence; unpredictability of future trends in science/physics, etc.]
Latour, B. & Woolgar, S., 1986 (2nd edition). Laboratory Life: Social Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton University Press. (See excellent review by John Stewart, 1982 “Facts as commodities’, in Radical Science Journal, No. 12, 1982, pp. 129-137, p. 132.)
● Law, J. (Editor), 1986. Power, Action, and Belief: a New Sociology of Knowledge. Routledge, London.
● Layzer, D., 1990. Cosmogenesis: the Growth of Order in the Universe. Oxford University Press.
● Lewin, R., 1992. Complexity: Life and the Edge of Chaos. Macmillan, New York.
● Lewis, H. & Couples, G.D. (Eds), 2007. The Relationship Between Damage and Localization. The Geological Society of London, Special Publication No. 289, 247 pp. (On the whole more systems analytical concepts, like fractals, could have been employed, but reference is made to systems via self-organization, feedback loops, none-linearity, scale-problems, attractors, for example.)
● Lipton, P.,2004 (2nd edition). Inference to the Best Explanation. Routledge, London.
● Lomborg, B., 2001. The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. Cambridge University Press, 515pp. (A controversial book – according to many scientists because the author ‘challenges widely held beliefs that the environmental situation is getting worse and worse … because many organizations make selective and misleading use of the scientific evidence.’ The author uses the best available statistical information from internationally recognized research institutions … concluding that there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism. .... needed is a clear-headed prioritization of resources to tackle real, nor imagined problems.’ If there ever was a need for systems theory/cybernetics, the debate about environments – with dozens of EFPVs involved – is it!)
● Lomborg, B. (Editor), 2004. Global Crises, Global Solutions. Cambridge University Press, 648pp. (Deals with the ten most urgent global problems. A good exemplar of many systems/cybernetics demands! A rather important social, political, etc., contribution – some highly technical discussions. See innumerable references to publications.)
● Longino, H., 1990. Science as Social Knowledge. Princeton University Press.
● Lorenz, K.z., 1981. The Foundations of Ethology. Springer-Verlag, New York. (Classic, still good. Ethology: study of ethics.)
● Lovelock, J.E., 1988. The Ages of Gaia: a Biography of Our Living Planet. W.W. Norton.
● Luminet, Black Holes. Cambridge University Press.
● Lynch, K., 1997. The Image of the City. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., USA.
● Mach, E., 1989. The Science of Mechanics. Open Court Publisher, La Salle, Ill, USA.
● Mainzer, K., 2007 (5th edition). Thinking in Complexity: the Computational Dynamics of Matter, Mind and Mankind. Springer Verlag, 410pp.
● Martinez, A.J., 1987. Ecological Economics. Basil Blackwell, New York.
● Matthews, J.R., 1995. Mathematics and the Quest for Medical Certainty. Princeton University Press.
● Machlup, F. & Mansfield, U. (Editors), 1983. The Study of Information—Interdisciplinary Messages. John Wiley & Sons, 795pp. (Good!)
● Martinez-Alier, J., 2002. The Environmentalism of the Poor – a Study of Ecological Conflicts and Evaluation. Edward Edgar Publishing, 328 pp.
● Mauskopf. S & McVaugh, M.R. 1980. The Elusive Science: Origins of Experimental Psychical Research. John Hopkins University Press.
● Mayer, R.E., 2005 (3rd edition). Thinking, Problem Solving and Cognition. Palgrave Macmillan, 560pp.
● Maynard-Smith, J., 1982. Evolution and Theory of Game Theory. Cambridge University Press.
● Maxwell, N., 2004. Is Science Neurotic? Imperial College Press, 260pp. (Science suffers from a damaging but rarely noticed methodological disease: ‘rationalistic neurosis’!? – i.e. assumptions concerning metaphysics, human value and politics, implicit in the aims of science, are repressed; this malaise has spread to affect the whole academic enterprise with long-term consequences. Starts with aims/purposes of natural sciences, proceeds to social sciences, philosophy, education, psychology, and academic enquiry as a whole. We suffer not from too much scientific rationality, but too little! An academic revolution is needed!)
● McLean, P. & Renton, J., 1992. Bankers and Bastards. Hudson Publishing, Hawthorn, Vic., Australia, 178 pp.
● McClure, B.A. (Editor), 2005 (2nd edit.). Putting a New Spin on Groups: the Science of Chaos. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 280pp. (Challenges orthodoxy and static ideas about small group dynamics; offers an alternative model based on chaos theory, self-organization, among others; neither a linear nor a unidimensional approach.)
● McCredie, R., 1973/2000. Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems. Princeton University Press. (This author, and co-authors, deal with applied mathematics, chaotic dynamical systems of animal and other populations, relations between stability and complexity, diversity and abundance of biological communities; rates, causes and consequences of extinction; biodiversity, among others.)
● McCredie, R. (Editor), 1976/1981. Theoretical Ecology: Principles and Applications. Blackwell.
● McCredie, R. (Editor), 1982. Population Biology of Infectious Diseases. Springer.
● McCredie, R. (Editor), 1984. Exploitation of Marine Ecosystems. Springer.
● McCredie, R. (Editor), 1988. Perspectives in Ecological Theory. Princeton University Press.
● McCredie, R. (Editor), 1990. Population Regulation and Dynamics. Cambridge University Press.
● McCredie, R. & Anderson, R., 1991. Infectious Diseases of Humans: Transmission and Control. Oxford University Press.
● McCredie, R., 1994. Large Scale Ecology and Conservation Biology. Blackwell.
● McCredie, R., 1999. Evolution of Biological Diversity. Oxford University Press.
● McCredie, R., 2000. Virus Dynamics: the Mathematical Foundations of Immunology and Virology. Oxford University Press.
● McKean, R.N., 1958. Efficiency in Government Through Systems Analysis, with Emphasis on Water Resource Development--a RAND Corporation Study. John Wiley & Sons.
● McKibben, B. 1990/2006. The End of Nature. Penguin Book, Harmondsworth, Middelesex, and Random House. (See also Davison, 2001. About eco-imagination; ‘every aspect of our planet has been transformed by human agency … ecosphere and technosphere now co-evolve … anti-cultural ideal of wilderness has left ecological thought vulnerable in three ways …, urban settings have been considered “unnatural” and thus neglected of ecological value’ – see Tuan, 1974; Thayer, 1994; Weston, 1999. According to J. Kleick, author of “Chaos”, humans have reached a dangerous environmental threshold. Develop an ecological/environmental urban/rural cybernetics!)
● McMullin, E. (Editor), 1992. The Social Dimensions of Science. University of Notre Dame Press.
● Mosekilde, E., 1996. Topics in Non-Linear Dynamics: Applications to Physics, Biology and Economic Systems. World Scientific Publications, 350pp. (Also on chaos, determinism, environments, etc.)
● McPhee, J., 1989. The Control of Nature. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York.
● McRobbie, A., 2005. The Uses of Cultural Studies: a Textbook. Sage Publications. (See also During, 2005; Jenks, 2005.)
● Meadows, D.H. et al., 1972. The Limits of Growth: a Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New American Library, Signet Book, New York, 203pp. (Prediction that has been analyzed since in several publications especially since only part of the dire forecasts became reality. See model, quantitative assumptions, etc.)
● Mellor, D.H., 1995. The Facts of Causation. Routledge, London.
● Meusburger, P, Welker, M. & Wunder, E. (Eds), 2008. Clashes of Knowledge: Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in Science and Religion. Springer Verlag, 230pp. (Very good – must-read book! See my review in the Journal of Documentation, Volume 65, 2009. Good on analysis, creativity, complexity, epistemology, research controversies, hierarchy, field of knowledge philosophy, tacit knowledge, uncertainty, wisdom, etc.)
● Midgley, M., 1992. Science as Salvation. Routledge, London.
● Minatti, G., Pessa, E. & Abram, M. (Eds), 2005. Sysytemic of Emergence: Research and Development. Springer Verlag, 746pp. (On uncertainty, complexity, etc.)
● Mirowski, P., 1989. More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics—Physics as Nature’s Economics. Cambridge University Press, New York.
● Mirowski, P. & Sent, E.M., 2001. Science Bought and Sold: Essays in the Economics of Science. Chicago University Press.
● Mitchell, W., 1995. City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. MIT Press.
● Moore, B.N. & Bruder, K, 1996. Philosophy: the Power of Ideas. Mayfield Company, London, 755 pp. (Another a good general introduction to Philosophy, see text for other books.)
● Moran, K.M. & Morgan, M.D., 1991. Meteorology, the Atmosphere, and the Science of Weather. Macmillan, New York.
● Morris, A. & Kokhan, S. (Eds), 2007. Geographic Uncertainty in Environmental Security. Springer Verlag, 287 pp. (Nearly all 17 chapters refer to some aspect of cybernetics-cum-systems analysis, e.g. especially to spatial and semantic fuzziness, fuzzy sets, Fuzzy Certainty Measure (FCM); and of course types of uncertainties, imprecision problems, ambiguity, plus indiscernibility relations, pattern recognition, higher-order vagueness; error ontology (philosophy of science), spatial ontology, data quality and metadata, search methodologies, modeling ill-defined knowledge, partial-evidence/data- imperfection problem, generalization rules, indeed reference is made to cybernetics, systematics, and expert systems!)
● Müller, T. & Müller, H. (Editors), 2003. Modelling in Natural Sciences: Design, Validation, and Case Studies. Springer-Verlag, 459pp.
● Mumford, L., 1961. The City in History, Its Origins, Its Transformation, and Its Prospects. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Publishers.
● Murdick, R.G. & Ross, J.E., 1971. Information Systems for Modern Management. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 572pp. (Very good early treatment!)
● Nathan, R.P., 1988. Social Science in Government: Uses and Misuses. Basic Books, New York.
● Needham, R., 1983. Against the Tranquility of Axioms. University of California Press. (Takes anthropological “certainties” apart!)
● New Scientist, 2004. Parapsychology Special. Issue of 13 March ’04, pages, 3 and 32-41. (Deals also with mathematical treatment of data, falsifiability, objectivity, etc.)
● Nicolis, C. & Nicolis, G. (Editors), 1987. Irreversible Phenomena and Dynamical Systems Analysis in Geosciences. D. Reidel Publishing Co., 578pp. (Deals with stability, bifurcation, attractors, catastrophe theory, stochastic analysis, geophysical fluid dynamics, patterns, propagation, determinism, predictability, non-linearity, self-organization, uncertainty, etc. in the context of climatology, and other geosystems.)
● Nonaka, I & Tacheuci, H., 1995. The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford University Press, New York, 269pp. [See also Von Krogh et al., 1998, 2000; Smith, 2000; Polanyi, 1966.) Important books on knowledge (tacit, generic, enabling, explicit, kinds) types, i.e. on Typology of Knowledge. Must read!]
● Novick, P., 1988. That Noble Dream: the ‘Objectivity Question’ and the American Historical Profession. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
● Ogden, C.K. & Richards, I.A. 1923/1985. The Meaning of Meaning: a Study of the Influence of Language Upon Thought and the Science of Symbolism. Ark Paperbacks, London, 301pp.
● Oldroyd, D., 1986/89. The Arch of Knowledge: an Introductory Study of the History of the Philosophy and Methodology of Science. University of New South Wales Press, Kensington, NSW, Australia, 413 pp. (Good! I especially like the liberal use of diagrams and tables – as many Philosophers refrain from utilizing graphics!)
● O’Neill, R.V., 1988. Hierarchy theory and global change. In: Rosswall et al., 29-45.
● Oppenheimer, S., 2003. Out of Eden—the Peopling of the World. Robinson, London, 440pp. (Good on anthropology, well-illustrated –many good maps. Much based on the most-recent DNA-technology. Very good on The Scientific Method as applied to anthropology/archaeology/ancient human migration/evolution. For disagreements among scientists, see ‘Discord in academia’, pages 280-1, and numerous alternative interpretations.)
● Ortoleva, P.J., 1994. Geochemical Self-Organization. Oxford University Press, 455pp. (On non-equilibrium, non-linearity, feedback, instability, bifurcation, symmetry, patterns, dissipative structures, correlation, oscillations, modeling, simulation, instability, coupling, differentiation, compartmentation, episodicity, etc. of a very open large-scale, long-time-evolving highly complex geological/environmental system – all part of cybernetic studies.)
● Owen, D.B. & McKeaon, Z.K., 1994. On Knowing—the Natural Sciences. University of Chicago University Press, 405pp. (Indeed an unusually wonderful book on Philosophy of Science covering numerous important aspects presented in a unique style: must read! On arguments/rhetoric, assumptions, various methodologies and principles, cause-effect, chance, deduction/induction, discovery, various types of interpretations, entropy, epistemology, types of knowledge, logic, modes of thought/thinking, ontology, reasoning, types of science, semantics/linguistics, and much more!)
● Papineau, D. (Editor), 1996. Philosophy of Science. Oxford readings in Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
● Paulston, R. (Editor), 1996. Social Cartography: Mapping Ways of Seeing Social and Educational Change. Garland, New York. (He ‘used a valuable methodology to revision education, by mapping various ideologies and theories to illustrate the transformation in thinking about education.’)
● Peat, F.D.1987. Synchronicity: the Bridge Between Matter and Mind. Bantam Books, New York.
● Peat, F.D., 1991. The Philosopher’s Stone: Chaos, Synchronicity, and the Hidden Order of the World. Bantam Books London, New York, 244 pp. (Also considered are the uncertainty principle, coincidence, connectivity, patterns, fractals, attractors, reductionism, prediction, determinism, ambiguity, coherence, time/space, correspondence, emergence, creativity, serendipity, linguistics.)
● Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J. & Boydell, T., 1997 (2nd edition). The Learning Company: a Strategy for Sustainable Development. McGraw Companies, London, etc., 243pp. (See also Senge et al., 1998.)
● Peixoto, J. & Oort, A.H., 1992. Physics of Climate. American Institute of Physics, New York.
● Penman, J., 1992. The Hungry Ape: Biology and the Fall of Civilization. Self-published, Park Orchards, VIC, Australia, 220pp. (An example of a unique study predicting the future of our civilization. On predicting, cultures, environments, etc.)
● Penrose, R., 1989. The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and the Laws of Physics. Vintage Books, 602pp. (On mathematics, fractals, cause/effect, determinism, entropy, complexity, uncertainty, etc.)
● Penrose, R., 1994. Shadows of the Mind: a Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness. Vintage Books, 457pp. (On mathematics, physics, ‘psychology’, cause/effect, heuristics, chaos, randomness, understanding, and much more. Not an easy book!)
● Penrose, R. & Longair, M., 2000. The Large, the Small and the Human Mind. Cambridge University Press, 220pp. (On scales influence, space-time, cosmology, reductionism, complexity, mathematical thinking, etc.)
● Persson, J. & Ylikoski, P. (Eds), 2007. Rethinking Explanation. Springer Verlag, 207pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 37, No. 5, Oct. 2008, 639-641.)
● Peterson, E.T., 1954. Big Dam Foolishness: the Problem of Modern Flood Control and Water Storage. Devin-Adair Co., New York.
● Philander, S.G., 1998. Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming. Princeton University Press, 262pp. (A fine low-key introductory treatment; see good references to excellent books and articles.)
● Plimmer, M. & King, B., 2003. Beyond Coincidence. Icon Publisher. (Part of skepticism and the paranormal—but still has some scientific adherences!)
● Plumb, D., 2004. Thinking dialectically about lifelong learning and democracy. In: Willis/Carden, 2004, Chapter 3, pages 59-73. (Plumb states that ‘dialectical thinking has rapidly developed over the past decade’ and lists ‘convergent theoretical perspectives, variously tagged as emergentism, complexity theory, relational materialism ecosocial systems theory, process philosophy, enaction theory’ – each concept dealt with by several publications not listed here. Well, system/cybernetics methodology to be applied here!)
● Polanyi, M., 1966. The Tacit Dimension. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London (Comparison with certain acquired skills’ science is largely a ‘craft skill’, dependent upon know-how rather than explicit, formal methodological rules. Tacit vs. explicit knowledge/skill. See Nonaka and co-writer.)
● Pollack, H.N., 2003. Uncertain Science … Uncertain World. Cambridge University Press, 243pp. (Quite good on various aspects of Philosophy of Science/The Scientific Method: measurement’s accuracy/errors, repeatability, climate change, certainty/uncertainty, conceptual ruts, conventional wisdom, creativity, experiments, ideology, models, hypothesis, Precautionary Principle, probability (%)-scale, ruts, scenarios, modeling, status quo, wishful thinking, prediction, peer review, cause-effect, different scientists think differently in problem solving!, etc.) (See also Bauer, 1992, 1995 – and references therein!)
● Ponting, C., 1991. A Green History of the World. Penguin Book, 432pp. (On the potential destruction of our globe, environments, etc.)
● Poundstone, W., 1985. The Recursive Universe—Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge. William Morrow and Co. Inc., New York. 275pp.
● Popper, K., 1976. Proofs and Refutations. Cambridge University Press.
● Porter, T.M., 1995. The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life: Trust in Numbers. Princeton University Press, 316pp. [As the title indicates, it is about ‘objectivity’ (and subsequently also about subjectivity) and was goes with it implicitly/explicitly and directly/obliquely: e.g. ability to measure, accuracy, precision, reliability; quantification, mathematics/statistics/probability, validity; use of graphs & formulae—in science, engineering (mentioned often), environments (e.g. water resources), social research, economics, politics/bureaucracy; interpretations; etc. A super-philosophical treatment!—with many references.]
● Posner, R.A., 2004. Catastrophe: Risk and Response. Oxford University Press, 352pp.
● Post, J,M. & Robins, R.S., 1993. When Illness Strikes the Leader: the Dilemma of the Captive King. 243pp. (Leadership, being important in all social settings, can be a real disaster if and when the leader/leaders are ill, especially emotionally or mentally ill. How to counter such occurrences?)
● Postle, D., 1980. Catastrophe Theory. Fontana Paperbacks, 218pp. (See also Woodcock/Davis, 1978; Zeeman, 1977; and Bourriau, J, 1992.)
● Price, H., 1996. Time’s Arrow and Archimedes’ Point. Oxford University Press, New York.
● Prigogine, I. & Stengers, I, 1985. Order Out of Chaos – Man’s New Dialogue With Nature. Flamingo Books, HarperCollinsPublishers, 349pp. (On complexity, entropy, cascading, thresholds, order, feedback, uncertainty, randomness, chaos, chance, determinism, idealization, probability, self-organization, etc.)
● Prigogine, I. & Nicolis, G., 1989. Exploring Complexity. W.H. Freeman.
● Proctor, R.N., 1991. Value-Free Science--Purity and Power in Modern Knowledge. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., USA.
● Pumain, D. (Ed.), 2006. Hierarchy in Natural and Social Sciences. Springer Verlag, 243pp. (You ought to read K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 36. No. 5, Oct. 2007, 605-612.)
● Rahman, S., Symons, J., Gabbay, D.M. & van Bendegem (Editors), 2004. Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science. Kluwer Academic Science, 635pp. (You ought to read K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 35, No. 4, Aug. 2006, 479-484! Covers many topics of importance philosophically and practically. Rather critical evaluative too.)
● Rakover, S.S., 1990. Metapsychology: Missing Links in Behavior, Mind & Science. Solomon Press/Paragon House Publishers, New York, 449pp. (An absolutely fabulous book on numerous aspects of the Scientific Method, epistemology, ontology, and much more! Must read!)
● Rancer, A.S. & Avtgis, T.A., 2006. Argumentative and Aggressive Communication: Theory, Research and Applications. Thousand Oakes, London, 321pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review on the online Website of PsycCRITIQUE APA Review of Books, issue of 1. Nov. 2006.)
● Raup, D.M., 1999 (2nd edition). The Nemesis Affair: a Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science. W.W. Norton & Company, 228pp. (Good on the Scientific Method. See also Ryan/Pitman,1998.)
● Ravetz, J.R., 1971/1996. Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems. Oxford University Press.
● Ravetz, J.R., 1990. The Merger of Knowledge With Power. Mansell, London.
● Ravetz, J.R., 1996 2nd edition). Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick.
● Ravetz, J.R. (Editor), 1999. Post-Normal Science. Special Issue in Futures, vol. 31, No. 7, September ’99.
● Ray, P.H. & Anderson, S.R. 2000. The Cultural Creatives. Harmony Books, New York.
● Rayner, E. & Stapley, R., 2002. Debunking History: 151 Popular Myths Exploded. Sutton Publishing, England, 333pp. (History is part interpretation: so many false ideas are floating around!)
● Read, Piers Paul, 1993. Ablaze—the Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl. Random House, 478pp. (Documentary account. See also Ford, 1986 and many other books on the INTERNET.)
● Rehm, J.T., 1990. Intuitive Predictions and Professional Forecasts. Pergamon,, ???pp.
● Reichenbach, H., 1958. The Philosophy of Space and Time. Dover, New York.
● Rescher, N., 1984. The Limits of Science. University of California Press, 265pp.
● Rescher, N, 1998. Predicting the Future: an Introduction to the Theory of Forecasting. State University of New York Press, 315pp.
● Rich, D.Z., 1997. Crisis Theory. Praeger Publishers, 248pp. (On chaos, catastrophe theory, fragmentation, equilibrium, knowledge dynamism, etc.)
● Rich D.Z., 2000. Order and Disorder. Praeger Publishers, 298pp. (Critical analysis of chaos, complexity, catastrophe, crisis theories, etc. Applied to evolution, biology society industrialization, etc.)
● Ricedan, M. & Schramm, D.N., 1991. The Shadows of Creation: Dark Matter and the Structure of the Universe. W.H. Freeman, New York.
● Rodrigues, H., Quarantelli, E.L & Dynes, R.R. (Eds), 2007. Handbook of Disaster Research. Springer Verlag, 611pp. (An excellent recent summary of the Sociology of Disasters …. Must be supplemented by publications related to the science/technology of disasters. Systems analysis/cybernetics ignored by all authors.)
● Rogers, R., 1997. Cities for a Small Planet. Faber & Faber, London.
● Rogoff, B., 1991. Apprenticeship in Thinking. Oxford University Press.
● Root-Bernstein, R.S., 1991. Discovering: Inventing and Solving Problems at the Frontiers of Scientific Knowledge. Harvard University Press, 501pp. (Rather good, but tedious to read as a conversational style is used.)
● Rorty, R., 1991. Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Mass, USA.
● Ross, A., 1991. Strange Weather. Verso, New York.
● Rosswall, T., Woodmansee, R.G. & Risser, P.G. (Editors), 1988. Scales and Global Change. 1988 Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), John Wiley & Sons. 500pp.
● Roszak, T., 1994 (2nd edition). The Cult of Information—a Neo-Luddite Treatise on High Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking. University of California Press, 267pp.
● Rothman, T., 2003. Everything’s Relative: and other Fables from Science and Technology. John Wiley & Sons, 272pp. (About apocrypha, inaccuracies, and blatant falsehoods; about discoveries and contradictions.)
● Ruben, D.-H. (Editor), 1993. Explanation. Oxford University Press.
● Rucker, R., 1988. Mind Tools: the Five Levels of Mathematical Reality. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. (Good, exciting, …)
● Ruel, D., 1991. Chance and Chaos. Penguin Books, 195pp. (On probability, determinism, attractors, entropy, complexity, etc.)
● Ryan W. & Pitman, W., 1998. Noah’s Flood: the New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History. Touchstone Book, Simon & Schuster, 319. (A fabulous exemplar of cybernetic geoscience research; about the Scientific Method. See also Raup, 1999).
● Sagoff, M., 1988. The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law, and the Environment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
● Said, E., 2002 (2nd edition). The End of the Peace Process. Granta Books, London. (‘What sort of statement can we make in the shadow of a compassion-less world power which engages in a deliberate strategy for world economic domination that creates for millions a life of starvation, disease, despair, terror and helplessness.’ The tools of systems/cybernetics are either misused or ignored in the phenomena of globalization, and many others.)
● Salmon, W., 1989. Four Decades of Scientific Explanation. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
● Salmon, W., 1998. Causality & Explanation. Oxford University Press.
● Sardar, Z., 2000. Thomas Kuhn and the Science War. Icon Books, London. (Interesting analysis on numerous aspects of Sociology, Culture, Psychology, Politics, and related topic of Science; with numerous references to books – really not dealt with by François’ Encyclopedia.)
● Sardar, Z., 2005/08. Introducing Chaos. Icon Books, London; Totem Books, New York, 176pp. (Also on complexity, systems, etc.)
● Sardar, Z., 1999. Introducing Mathematics. Icon Books, London; Totem Books, New York, 176pp.
● Sarton, G., 1975. Introduction to the History of Science. Krieger Publishing Company.
● Sadler, S., 1998. The Situationist City. MIT Press, Cambridge Mass., USA.
● Sale, K., 1980. Human Scale. Secker & Warburg, London, 558pp.
● Salmon, W.C., 1984. Scientific Explanation & the Causal Structure of the World. Princton University Press.
● Sands, P., 2005. Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rule (Illegal Wars). Penguin Books, 324pp. (Global rules/laws have been ignored; international justice is endangered; Carter of the UN, Human Rights, Geneva Convention, etc. are presented and discussed.)
● Saunders, P., 2005. The Poverty Wars: Reconnecting Research With Reality. University of New South Wales Press, 158pp. (Just another social problem which requires a holistic, all-encompassing approach not a piecemeal analysis.)
● Savitt, S., 2000. Time’s Arrows Today. Cambridge University Press, England.
● Savory, A., 1999. Holistic Management – a New Framework for Decision Making. Island Press, Washington, D.C., 616pp. (An absolutely superb book – specializing in land management and agriculture, but with many general applications beyond that!)
● Scanlon, E., Whitelegg, E., & Yates, S. (Editors), 1999. Communicating Science: Contexts & Channels. Routledge, London.
● Schuster, J.A. & Richard, R.Y (Editors), 1986. The Politics and Rhetoric of Scientific Method. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland.
● Selin, H. (Editor), 1997. Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
● Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R.B. & Smith, B.J., 1994/1998. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook—Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. Nicholas Brealey Publishers, London, 593pp. (See also Pedler et al., 1997.)
● Sennett, R. (Editor), 1969. Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities. Prentice-Hall, Englewood, Cliffs, N.J., USA.
● Sennett, R., 1990. The Conscience of the Eye: the Design and Social Life of Cities. Knopf, New York.
● Shah, A.M. et al. 1996. Complex Organizations and Urban Communities. Vol. 3. of Social Structure and Change. Sage Publications, Inc.
● Shadish, W., & Fuller, S. (Editors), 1994. The Social Psychology of Science. Gilford Publications, New York.
● Shamos, M.H., 1995. The Myth of Scientific Literacy. Rutgers University Press, 263pp. (A must read! A frank discussion about the failure of education/training of scientists, technologists, engineers, and related professionals. See regarding: ‘The Two & Three Cultures’, humanities/liberal arts vs. sciences, scientific attitudes, bias, anti-thisandthat, basic vs. applied sciences, civic scientific literacy, universities, curriculum-changes, education in general, experts, irrationality, mathematics, numeracy, Occam’s razor, science & technology in general, neo-Luddites, whistleblowing, power of the press, and much more. Claims that for many professionals ‘scientific awareness/literacy/familiarity of the methodology of science/technology, for instance, is more important than knowing many scientific facts’. See very good Bibliography as part of the Notes.)
● Shaw, H.R., 1988. Mathematical attractor theory and plutonic-volcanic episodes. In: Chi-Yu King & Roberto Scarpa (Editors), Modeling of Volcanic Processes, Friedrich Vieweg & Sons, Wiesbaden, Germany, 162-207.
● Sherden, 1998. The Fortune Sellers: the Big Business of Buying and Selling Predictions. John Wiley & Sons, 308pp.
● Shermer, M., 2001. The Borderlands of Science – Where Sense Meets Nonsense. Oxford University Press, 360pp. (See www.skeptics.com)
● Shermer, M., 2002. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstitions and Other Confusions of Our Time. Henry Holt/Owe Book, New York.
● Shermer, M., 2003a. The Science of Good and Evil. TimesBooks/Henry Holt. (About skepticism; see also Wheen, 2003.)
● Shermer, M., 2003b (2nd edition). How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God. Times Books/Henry Holt, New York, 351pp.
● Shiller, R., 2005 (2nd edition). Irrational Exuberance. Princeton University Press, 344 pp.
● Shiller, P., 2008. The Subprime Solution(s) –How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened and What To Do About It. Princeton University Press, 208pp.
● Silka, L.,1989. Intuitive Judgements of Chance. Springer Verlag.
● Sindermann, C.J. 1982. Winning the Games Scientists Play. Plenum Press, 290pp.
(The three books by him are must to read! – they are about sociology, psychology and politics – including unaccepted types! – of science and scientists!)
● Sindermann, C.J., 1985. The Joy of Science: Excellence and Its Rewards. Plenum Press, 259pp.
● Sindermann, C.J., 1987. Survival Strategies for New Scientists. Plenum Press, 264pp.
● Sklar, L. 1977. Space, Time and Spacetime. University of California Press, Berkely, CA, USA.
● Slaughter, R., 1995 (2nd edition). Futures Tools and Techniques. Futures Study Centre, University of Melbourne, 194pp. (As to supplementary publications see those related to prediction/forecasting.)
● Slaughter, R., 1996a (2nd edition). Futures Concepts and Powerful Ideas. Ditto, 225pp.
● Slaughter, R., 1996b (Editor). The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies, Volumes 1, 2 and 3. ditto, 1187pp.
● Slaughter, R. (Editor). 1996c. New Thinking for a New Millennium: The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies. Routledge Publishers, 242pp.
● Sloan, D., 1983. Insight-Imagination: the Emancipation of Thought and the Modern World. Greenwood Press, London. [See also Casey, 1976. ‘… imagining refers both to forming the image of a future scenario (what) and to strategizing ways and means to arrive at the scenario (how)’. See also publications on thinking, creativity, innovation, …]
● Sloman, S. 2005. Causal Models: How People Think About the World and Its Alternatives. Oxford University Press, 256pp. (Offers a conceptual non-technical introduction to the key mathematical ideas, by focusing on the intuitions rather than the theorems – demonstrating how people explain things; important is to think about the world as it is and as it could be; using causality, causal models, in the context of cognition, decision-making, reasoning, language and learning.
● Smile, V. 2003. Energy at the Crossroads -- Global Perspectives and Uncertainties. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 427pp. (A well-researched book! A fine example of how any problem ought to be fully discussed from all viewpoints. See also list of 18 books he wrote on similar problems – products of 40 years research. From our viewpoint of system/cybernetics, he deals with many aspects of normative scenarios/models and their past failures in forecasting/predicting, trend analysis, cyclicity, environments, economics, security, wars related to resources, crises analysis, futurology and its pitfalls, innovation, and much more – all from a global/universal/holistic perspective.)
● Smith, R. (Editor), 1989. Expert Evidence: Interpreting Science in the Law. Routledge, London.
● Smith, D.E., et al., 2000. Knowledge, Groupware and the Internet. Butterworth/Heinemann, Oxford, 332pp. (See Nonaka/Takeuchi, 1995 for comments.)
● Snow, C.P., 1963. Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge University Press, 58pp.
● Sober, E., 1975. Simplicity. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 222pp.
● Sosa, E. & Tooley, M. (Editors), 1993. Causation. Oxford University Press.
● Steadman, 1979. The Evolution of Design. Cambridge University Press. (Analogies between evolution of technology and evolution of organisms. Good, critical view.)
● Stenger, V., 2000. Timeless Reality. Prometheus Books, Amhesrt, N.Y.
● Sternberg, R.J. (Editor), Wisdom: its Nature, Origins, and Development. 1990. Cambridge University Press, 339pp. (A MUST to read! – see the many different opinions, definitions, interpretations, and comparative/contrastive-style summary tables!)
● Stewart, I., 1989. Does God Play Dice? – the Mathematics of Chaos. Penguin Books, 317pp. (On order/chaos, attractors, butterfly effect, complexity, fractals, determinism, non-linearity, randomness, etc.)
● Stewart,I. & Golubitsky, M., 1992, 2nd edition). Fearful Symmetry: is God a Geometer? Viking Penguin. (New way looking at pattern, complexity, generation of order.)
● Stigler, S.M., 1986. The History of Statistics: the Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900. Harvard University Press.
● Stiglitz, J.E. 2002. Globalization and Its Discontents. Allen Lane/Penguin Books. (See also Weiss et al., 2004.)
● Strahler, A.N., 1980. Systems theory in physical geography. Physical Geography, vol. 1, No.1, 1-27. [See Bibliography for other publications. Physical Geographers have been at the forefront in utilizing system research (cybernetics!) – a long list of publication exists!)
● Svozil, K., 1993. Randomness & Undecidability in Physics. World Scientific, Singapore.
● Szostak, R. 2004. Classifying Science: Phenomena, Data, Theory, Method, Practice. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 286pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s reviews in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2006, 472-478; and on the academici 2008 online Website -- regarding different types of sciences, classified according to the above five elements; including the social sciences and humanities. See references!)
● Tabori, P., 1959/62. The Natural Science of Stupidity. Prentice-Hall International, Inc., London, 288pp. [This book is a hilarious, yet eye-opening, book about stupidity, doltishness, muddleheadedness, incapacity, hebetude, vacuity, shortsightness, fatuity, iciocy, flly, giddiness, desipience, …. (many more ‘illuminate’ terms like that was listed by the author especially as applied to the persons responsible – even the Theasurus can’t keep up with him!). Well, to attack the world’s problems we also must be familiar with all the deleterious aspects and the perpetrators responsible! Any counter-offers?]
● Talbott, S.L., 1995. The Future Does Not Compute—Transcending the Machines in Our Midst. O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA, USA, 481pp.
● Teeuw, R.M. (Ed.), 2007. Mapping Hazardous Terrain Using Remote Sensing. Geological Society of London, Special Publication No. 283, 169 pp. (Although the whole book is related to ‘systems’ only occasional reference is made to systems analysis’ methodologies and philosophies. Ought to be rectified in the future!)
● Tél, T. & Gruiz, M., 2005. Chaotic Dynamics. Cambridge University Press, 520pp. (On dissipative systems, complexity, mathematics, applied to: mechanics, engineering, environments, astronomy, etc.)
● Tenner, E., 1996. Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge Effect – Predicting the Problems of Progress. Fourth Estate Ltd., London, 346pp. (Worry about society’s and the world’s future? Read this book! But also Zeldin’s 1994 book!)
● Thayer, R., 1994. Grey World, Grey Heart: Nature, Technology and the Sustainable Landscape. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
● Thelwall, M., 2004. Link Analysis: an Information Science Approach. Academic Press, 250pp. (Links between websites used in information science; about search engines; etc.)
● Thomson, M., 2001. Philosophy of Science. Teach Yourself, McGraw-Hill Publishers, 202pp. (Neat little booklet for beginners! See list of references to other books.)
● Thomson, D.W. &Bonner, J.T. (Editors), 1961. On Growth and Form. Cambridge University Press. (Two issues available: one a 2-volume set, the other an abridged edition.)
● Tondl, L., 1973. Scientific Procedures—the Methodological Problems of Scientific Concepts and Scientific Explanations. D. Reidel Publishing C., 270pp.
● Toulman, St., 2001. Return to Reason. Harvard University Press.
● Trenberth, K.E., 1992. Climate System Modeling. Cambridge University Press, New York.
● Tribe, L., 1971. Trial by mathematics: precision and ritual in the Legal process. Harvard Law Review, B, 101, 1329-1393 and 1801-1820.
Tuan, Y-F, 1974. Topophilia: a Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. Prenctice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, CA.
● Turcotte, D.L. 1997. Fractals and Chaos in Geology and Geophysics. Cambridge University Press, 397pp. (AUS$ 120.00!)
● Turekian, K.K., 1996. Global Environmental Change: Past, Present, and Future. Prentice-Hall.
● Union of International Associations, 1995. Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, Volumes 1, 2 & 3. K.G. Saur, Munich, New Providence, London, Paris; 3,161pp. ISBN 3-598-11165-7. [Reviewed in Journal of Documentation, 1998, 54 (4), 52003.] (An absolute must to read; nay, study! -- even if it takes many hours! No pain, no gain!)
● Urry, J., Global Complexity. Polity Press, 168pp. (On chaos, order, equilibrium, irreversibility, systems, networks, emergence, sociology, politics, fluid processes, etc.)
● Vacca, J. (Editor), 2005. The World’s 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems. Prentice Hall, 668pp. (See www.phptr.com.) (Covering all sciences; e.g. earthquake prediction, paleontology, etc. – each topic covered by short article.)
● van Boxsel, M., 2004 (new edition). The Encyclopedia of Stupidity. Reaktion Books, 218 pp.
● Vargas-Quesada, B & Moya-Anegón, F. de (Eds), 2007. Visualising the Structure of Science. Springer Verlag, 311pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of Science, Vol. 37, No. 5, Oct. 2008, 643-645.)
● von Baeyer, H.C., 2003. Information: The New Language of Science. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 258pp. [About many concepts, e.g. measure of information; different types of reductionism, such as petty & grand (p.56); emergence, probability, entropy, randomness—flipside of information, …. Ranging from introductory to rather highly esoteric discussions.]
● Von Krogh, G. et al. (Editors). 1998. Knowing in Firms: Understanding, Managing and Measuring Knowledge. Sage Publishing, London, 295pp. (See Nonaka/Takeuchi, 1995, for comments.)
● Von Krogh, G. et al., 2000. Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation. Oxford University Press, 296pp. (See Nonaka/Takeuchi, 1995, for comments.)
● von Weizsäcker, Lovins, A.E. & Lovins, L.H., 1007. Factor Four: Doubling Wealth – Halving Resource Use. The New Report to the Club of Rome. EarthScan Publishing Ltd. London, 322pp. (The book heralds a new direction for technological progress. It offers a solution to the predictions made by the 1972 report by the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth by Meadows et al. The book covers many urgent technological questions and solutions. See References to many important publications.)
● von Weiszacker, C.F., 1980. The Unity of Nature. Farrer, Straus, and Giroux, New York.
● Wagner, W. & Steinzor, R. (Eds), 2006. Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific Research. Cambridge University Press, 303pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 37, No. 2, April 2008, 140-141.)
● Waldrop, M., 1992. Complexity: the Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos. Simon & Schuster, New York.
● Wallace, D.B. & Gruber, H.E., 1989. Creative People at Work. Oxford University Press.
● Wallace, J.M. & Hobbs, P.V., 1977. Atmospheric Science. Academic Press.
● Warburton, N. (Editor), 1999. Philosophy: Basic Readings. Routledge, London, 449pp. (Several dozen essays: a good quick introduction to demonstrate ‘what philosophy is’.)
● Warren, B.A. & Wunsch, C. (Editors), 1981. Evolution of Physical Oceanography. MIT Press. (Several dozen essays: a good quick introduction to demonstrate “what philosophy is’.)
● Warnock, 1976. Imagination. Faber Books.
● Watkins, J. 1984. Science and Scepticism. Princeton University Press. (See also Wheen 2004.)
● Watts, J.D., 2003. Six Degrees—the Science of Connected Age. Vintage, 368pp. (Good! On holistics, etc.)
● Wheen, F., 2004. How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: a Short History of Modern Delusions. Harper Perennial 358pp. (Humorous but factual polemics about our time when everything stopped tom make sense. Skepticism is absolutely necessary. See Watkins, 2003.)
● Weinberg, S., 1992. Dreams of a Final Theory: the Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature. Pantheon, New York. (See also Barrow, 1992.)
● Weintraub, E.R., 2002. How Economics Became a Mathematical Science. Duke University Press, N.C., USA (See Foster, 2005.)
● Weiss, L., Thurbon, E. & Mathews, J., 2004. How to Kill a Country: Australia’s Devastating Trade Deal With the United States. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, Australia. (See also Stiglitz, 2002. There are now many books and articles on Globalization, FTA-Free Trade Agreements & NAFTA—North American FTA; many pro but many con! Indeed a huge global problem for systems/cybernetic experts!)
● Weiss, L., 1998. The Myth of the Powerless State: Governing the Economy in a Global Era. Polity Press, Oxford, UK, 260pp. (Deals also with globalization FTA, etc. See also Bhagwati, 2004.)
● Weiss, M.J., 2000. The Clustered World: How We Live, What We Buy, and What It All Means About Who We Are. Little, Brown Publishers, New York, London, Boston.
● Weston, A. (Editor), 1999. An Invitation to Environmental Philosophy. Oxford University Press. (See McKibben, 1990.)
● Whewell, W., 1971. Mathematical Exposition of Some Doctrines of Political Economy. Reprinted from original of 1831?, Augustus M. Kelley, New York.
● Wheen, F., 2003. How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World. Fourth Estate. (About skepticism. See also Shermer, 2001, 2003.)
● Wiebe, R., 1967. The Search for Order. Hill and Wang, New York.
● Wierzbicki,A.P. & Nakamori, Y (Eds), 2007. Creative Environments: Issues of Creativity Support for the Knowledge Civilization Age. Springer Verlag, 509 pp. (Very good – see my review in the Journal of Documentation, Volume 65, 2009. On many aspects of information creation! Absolutely read it! )
● Wise, M.N. (Editor), 1995. The Values of Precision. Princeton University Press.
● Whyte, J., 2003. Bad Thoughts: a Guide to Clear Thinking. Corve (UK); McGraw-Hill (USA). (See New Scientist, 4. Sept., ‘04, p. 40.)
● Whyte, J., 2004. Crimes Against Logic-Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and other Serial Offenders. McGraw-Hill, 161pp. (His two books’ titles are self-evidentally telling what the topics are he is dealing with! For instance, it could be that a systems/cybernetics experts is given a pseudo-problem to work on! How to recognize the false-reasoning-based request before getting seriously involved!)
● Williams, B., 2004. Debt For Sale: a Social History of the Credit Trap. University of Pennsylvania Press, 153pp. (A social dilemma, no catastrophe, which demonstrates that supposedly intelligent people cannot use systems/cybernetic ideas to solve their personal finances! See references to publications.
● Williams, G.P., 1997. Chaos Theory Tamed. Joseph Henry Press, Washington, D.C., 499pp. (Also about attractors, order, fractals, emergence, self-organization, predicting, self-organization, and much more. Author is a geologist/earth scientist.)
● Williams, R., 1973. The Country and the City. Oxford University Press, New York.
● Willis, P. & Carden, P. (Editors), 2004. Lifelong Learning and the Democratic Imagination: Revisioning Justice, Freedom and Community. Document Services, University of South Australia, 535pp. [Indeed a super-deep philosophical treatment of many micro- and macro-level problems of many modern enigmas, too many to list here. Just a short list: the 27 articles deal, for example, with democracy where people consciously shape power through various processes of ‘imagining (several times defined/described); to result in a much-needed renewed vision; political sociology requires use of aggregate and deliberative models – to think beyond the narrow instrumentalism of consumerism, corporatisation,, ...; imagination is under-theorised, under-taught; innovative imagination/imagining is important in distinguishing important from useless knowledge; political imagination poses questions of power, wealth, and justices (32). While dealing with these and many more problems to essays the researchers cover education (teaching, learning, research, pedagogy in general, universities’ curricula) bureaucracies, media, discourse/communication (e.g. 132), bureaucracies, citizenship, cultures, McDonaldized industry, and naturally environments/ecology; plus spirituality vs. religion (165); taxonomy of learning (307); kinds of knowledge (55-6); calculability (298); the many absences of application of available knowledge (an oxymoron?!); dialectical thinking with list of numerous convergent theoretical perspectives and concepts (definitely to be included in the next edition of the Encyclopedia) (63); Some good quotable statements: ‘Imagination can be an antidote to alienation & cynicism’ (viii); ‘Information is everywhere and everywhere we are ignorant’ (52); ‘Data is raw, knowledge is cooked’ (53); ‘Knowing is radically divorced from action in the Information Age’ (55);
● Wilson, E.O., 1998. Consilience: the Unity of Knowledge. Abacus Books, 374pp.
● Wilson, E.O. & Holldobler, B., 1990. The Ants. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., USA. (About complex ant communities; see also Gordon, 1999.)
● Wolf, K.H., 1971. Textural and compositional transitional stages between various lithic grain types (with comment on “interpreting detrital modes of greywacke and arkose”). Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, vol. 41, 328-332 and 889. (See use of diagrams.)
● Wolf, K.H., 1973a. Conceptual Models. Part I. Sedimentary Geology, vol. 9, 153-194. (Just one example of modeling demonstrating the use of complex NETMAPS or concatenation diagrams in environmental research by using cybernetics without ever referring to that term!)
● Wolf, K.H., 1973b. Conceptual models. Part II. Sedimentary Geology, vol. 9, 235-260. (With many conceptual models/diagrams; some rather large foldout types.)
● Wolf, K.H. 1976. Conceptual models in geology. In: K.H. Wolf (Editor). Handbook of Strata-Bound and Stratiform Ore Deposits. Volume 1. Elsevier Science Publishers, 11-78. (With some models.)
● Wolf, K.H., 1985. Book-review of Geochemistry of Sedimentary Ore Deposits by J.B. Maynard. Chemical Geology, vol. 48, 385-366. (With some models.)
● Wolf, K.H., 1987. Ubiquity and inter-dependence of (re)mobilization systems – putting the matter into full context: a brief comment. Ore-Geology Reviews, vol. 2, 11-20. (See use of diagrammatic models.)
● Wolf, K.H., 1988. Introduction: a scientific—philosophical view of methodology. In: G.V. Chilingarian & K.H. Wolf (Eds), 1988, Diagenesis, Volume II, Elsevier Scientific Publishers, Amsterdam, 1-45.
● Wolf, K.H., 1993. Words in space. In: Australian Style, vol. 2, No.1, 3-4. (Suggesting the use of diagrams to comparatively/contrastively interrelate words which are usually listed separately in dictionaries and glossaries. Thus, innumerable new types of glossaries are to be constructed for general use and for all disciplines! Ask me for advice!)
● Wolf, K.H. 1999a. Lawyer whistleblowing on lawyers: a book review. In: the Whistle, Newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia Inc., Issue No. 4, ’99, pages 16-18. (Review of book by Dawson, 1998. For Website, see under Dawson, 1998.)
● Wolf, K.H., 1999b. Professional misconducts: research under WB’s scrutiny—book review of Research Misconduct by Altman/Hernon, 1997. In: the Whistle, Newsletter of Whistleblower’s Australia Inc., Issue March ’99, pages 6-8.
● Wolf, K.H., 2005a,b,c,d. Review of International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cyberetics (2nd edition) by Charles François. In: (a) International Journal of General Systems, v.34, no.3, 321-324; (b) Human Systems Management, v.24, 117-119; (c) Journal of Documentation, v.61, no.5, 672-675; and (d) The Australian Geologist Newsletter No. 134, March ’05, 49-50.
● Wolf, K.H. 2005e. Rating of experts vs. generalists to distinguish them for various situations. On Website of Global Ideas Bank – www.globalideasbank.org/bank/idea. (Note: this group also published a 2005 with many ideas, including this one.)
● Wolf. K.H., 2005f. Review of Studies in Military geography and Geology, by Caldwell, D.R. et al., Kluwer Academic Publishers. Reviews in: the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2006, 498-502; and in The Australian Geologists Newsletter No. 136, Sept. ’05, 46-47.
● Wolf, K.H., 2007. Hypothesis vs. theory: part of a hierarchy of truth. Letter to the Editor. International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 36, No. 5, October ‘07, 619-621.
● Wolf, K.H. & Cunningham, J.D., 1998. Encyclopedia to find holistic context in psychology. Contemporary Psychology, vol. 43, No. 9, 604-606. [See also our other two reviews in: Journal of Documentation, 1998b, vol. 54, no. 4, 520-523; and Social Behavior and Personality, 1998c, vol. 26(4), 407-408.]
● See www.wolframscience.com for books
● Woodcock, A. & Davis, M., 1978. Catastrophe Theory: the Revolutionary New Way of Understanding How Things Change. Dutton, New York. (Brief; simple account, discusses certain issues. But see Bourriau, 1992.) )
● Woodward, J., 2005. Making Things Happen: a Theory of Causal Explanation. Oxford University Press, 432pp. (New comprehensive theory of causation and explanation as extracted from a variety of disciplines and applying to science and everyday life; referring to manipulation and exploitation; a common-sensical explanation of cause/effect relations; referring to experimental design, econometrics, and statistics; how to generalize conclusions for the natural and social sciences; how to avoid counterfactual examples.)
● Woolgar, S., 1988. Science: the Very Idea. Tavistock, London.
● www.purdeyenvironment.com (This is a website of the ‘controversial’ British researchers Mark & Nigel Purdey which has existed for many years. They have been battling the scientific community and bureaucrats/politicians, among others, in their ‘explorations of the ways in which the environment may be causing a wide variety of diseases such as BSE, CJD, Scapie, Alzheimer’s disease, the Chronic Fatigue Syndromes and more.’ The website will lead you to hundreds of publications! If any problem requires a global micro- and macro-systems/cybernetic approach, this is a good example!)
● Yamaguchi, K, (Ed), 1998. The New Scientific-Visionary Paradigm: Non-Linear and Chaos-Theoretic Thinking in the 21st Century. Adamantine Publishers. (Also on complexity, applied to: engineering, chemistry, health/medicine, economics,
● Yates, F.E. (Editor), 1987. Self-Organizing Systems: the Emergence of Order. Plenum Press.
● Yeaxlee, B.A., 1929. Lifelong Learning. Croom Helm, London. (Lifelong learning includes not just pedagogical teaching, but also direct life experiences – we need a taxonomy of formal and informal learning.)
● Young, S., 2007. The Book is Dead—Long Live the Book. University of New South Wales Press Ltd., Sydney, NSW, 189pp. (See K.H. Wolf’s review on the academici online 2008 Website, in press.)
● Zeeman, E.C., 1977. Catastrophe Theory: Selected Papers 1972-1977. Addison-Wesley, Reading Mass, USA. (Geometric models of sudden change in a dozen branches of science; interesting even when wrong, but often right! But see Postle, 1980; Bourriau, 1992.)
● Zeh, H.D., 2001. The Physical Basis of the Direction of Time. Springer Verlag, Berlin.
● Zeldin, T, 1994. An Intimate History of Humanity. Minerva Books, London, 488pp. (An excellent book on various topics about society, psychology, values, prediction, philosophy, and much more -- see especially several reference on pages 462-4 to books on Thinking, Creativity, Wisdom, Imagination, Uncertainty, cultural differences, etc.)
● Zhang, L-F. & Sternberg, R.J., 2006. The Nature of Intellectual Styles. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 235pp. (See reviews by K.H. Wolf in the International Journal of General Systems, Vol. 37, No. 2, April 2008, 135-138; and on the academici 2008 online Website.)
● Ziman, J., 1968. Public Knowledge: The Social Dimension of Science. Cambridge University Press (See his several other books about Philosophy of Science.)
● Ziman, J., 2000. Real Science: What it is and what it means. Cambridge University Press. (An absolute excellent book! Must read!)
● Zimbardo, P. 2007. The Lucifer Effect; How Good People Turn Evil. Rider Publishers, London, 551 pp. [A must-read book by Californian psychologist who performed the infamous (he admits this based on hindsight!) Stanford Prison Experiment, SPE. It suggests, supported by much evidence beyond this experiment, that anybody (really?) can be turned into an evil person doing harm to anyone!? See also Zimbardo’s other six books.]
● Zohar, D. & Marshall, I., 1993. The Quantum Society: Mind, Physics and a New Social Vision. FlamingoBooks, HarperCollinsPublishers, 319pp. (On uncanny analogies between quantum reality and the dynamics of the mind and society’s values and behaviour, morality, political dilemmas; much about ‘meaning’.)
Karl H. Wolf; B.Sc., Canada; Ph.D., Australia; 3xD.Sc, USA
Springwood, NSW 2777, Australia
wolfwisdom@bigpond.com.au
|