Bernhard Sterchi - Complexity Theory and Neo-Kantian Theory of Science

About this event

What Complexity Theory Can Learn from Neo-Kantian Theory of Science. The south-west German school of Neo-Kantianism, represented by Heinrich Rickert, Wilhelm Windelband, and the sociologist Max Weber, studied the difference between nomothetical and ideographical science and their respective ways of building an argument. The former was the dominant perspective of natural science, the latter of the humanities, with social science somewhere in the middle. This approach later led to the E-V debate (Erklären-Verstehen, funny they're using German terms in English) between Popper, Albert, and others. It influenced many theories on the sociology of science (Mannheim) and scientific paradigms (Kuhn), on constructivism (Kelley), the social construction of reality (Berger/Luckmann), pragmatics of communication (Watzlawick), and on the relation between interest and discovery (Habermas). However, in anglophone academia, the E-V debate was at some point considered to be resolved, unlike in its German and continental counterparts. This had a major impact on the direction of social science in these two communities. Since then, cybernetics, the science of systems, and complexity science have evolved to understand the path dependency of complex systems, implying that with rising complexity, the amount and importance of what is unique to a specific given system increase in comparison to what this one system has in common with the class it belongs to, or with complex systems in general. Could this be an occasion to take a closer look at the forgotten side of the E-V debate and see how we profit from the vocabulary of an ideographical approach? On the basis of this argument, the talk explores some practical applications of this vocabulary, mostly in the context of social systems. Bio
 Bernhard Sterchi has been named a thought sorter and a player of Tetris with ideas. He has over 20 years of experience in leadership training, coaching and consulting. He is currently managing partner of Palladio Trusted Advisers, and has learned the trade in Management Zentrum St. Gallen (later Malik Management), a consulting firm which saw management as a practice and sub-discipline of cybernetics, not of business administration, and which acquired the legacy of Stafford Beer, PIMS and Frederick Vester. He started his professional career in HR in various companies. He holds a PhD in historical anthropology and, as an historian, has published on conformity, social norms, reputation and their connection to political communication and to the distinction of elites in pre-modern society. He is the author of The Leader's Fairytales, Oblique Strategies for Leaders, a collection of systemic interventions for leaders (in German, forthcoming), and the creator of the Peerview App. This event will be recorded. The event link will be published on meetup.com (https://www.meetup.com/complexitylounge/?eventOrigin=home_groups_you_organize) 1 hour prior. Please note the time slot - this is an afternoon event for those of you on EDT (12:00 pm to 2:00 pm).https://properscience-limited.zoom.us/j/85195718753?pwd=EhZFoM56NlAeDa8BEFWjfHMipwN812.1