Knowledge Evolution Regarding the Role of the Observer in a Quadruple Cybernetic Approach

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

• Pegah Tajer ¹
• Nezamedin Faghih ²

¹ Shiraz University

² Surrey University

10.22067/riis.v5i2.38640

Abstract

Purpose: Regarding the role of the observer in cybernetics, this paper aims to investigate the evolution of knowledge. It states the philosophical foundations of four types of cybernetics in order to reveal the necessity of these approaches in knowledge and information science.
Methodology: Review and analysis of published resources
Findings: The observer performs different roles in various orders of cybernetics. In the first order cybernetics, knowledge is a picture of observed facts without the inclusion of the observer in a system. There is an observer’s construct with the inclusion of him/her in the second order cybernetics and there is a social construct based on the actors in the third order. As the fourth order cybernetics applies Universal Dialectic Systems Theory and scholarly communications, it seems that knowledge could consequently evolve through. A quadruple cybernetic approach is paramount in the field of knowledge and information science. Moreover, the peak of this importance could be noticed in scholarly communications and in the fourth order cybernetics. As an interdisciplinary field of study, knowledge and information science is the infrastructure of the societies’ development. Thus, it is necessary to be viewed from cybernetic knowledge evolution standpoint.

Keywords

• The observer
• Knowledge
• Cybernetics
• First order cybernetics
• Second order cybernetics
• Third order cybernetics
• Fourth order cybernetics

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