Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

descriptions were believed to be objective, that is independent of the human observer andthe process of knowledge., in the new paradigm epistemology - the understanding of theprocess of knowledge – has to be included explicitly in the description of naturalphenomena. The fourth criterion is a shift towards networks as the metaphor for knowledge.Things exist by virtue of their mutually consistent relationships. There is no hierarchy offundamental laws or principles as the widely held metaphor of knowledge as a buildingsuggests. The last criterion involves the shift from truth to approximate description. TheCartesian paradigm was based on a belief in the certainty of scientific knowledge. In stead,the paradigm shift described by Capra advances the idea that all scientific concepts andtheories are limited and approximate 179 . Or as Piaget had suggested to BoydRather than envisaging human knowledge as a pyramid or building of some sort, we shouldthink of it as a spiral the radius of whose turns increases as the spiral rises 180 .Boyd and the systems view of lifeHistorically, systems theoretical developments and its applications to actual problems were infull swing starting in the early 1950s and continuing well into the 1970s. It was the time Boydattended Georgia Tech, immersed himself in fighter design and theories of learning. Clearly,Boyd was profoundly influenced by these insights. In his strategic theory this becomesevident not only through his bibliographies, but also in various sections in differentpresentations, as already alluded above. First of all, Boyd adopted the key insight that livingsystems are essentially open systems and need to be if they aspire to exist and grow. He oftenemploys the terms ‘organic whole’. In Patterns of Conflict for instance, when he summarizesthe ‘theme for vitality and growth’, he states that the aim is to:improve fitness as an organic whole to shape and expand influence or power over the courseof events in the world 181 .In fact, this fundamental scientific insight informed Boyd’s thoughts concerning the essenceof strategy, which he expressed in systems theoretical terms. In his presentation The StrategicGame of ? & ?, in which he distills the abstract essence of strategy, he includes as what hetermed an ‘essential element’ the idea that:Living systems are open systems; closed systems are non-living systems. Point: if we don’tcommunicate with outside world - to gain information for knowledge and understanding aswell as matter and energy for sustenance - we die out to become non-discerning anduninteresting part of that world 182 .Indeed, when we do not maintain communication with the outside world, Boyd asserts, bothGödel and the Second Law will “kick in”:One cannot determine the character or nature of a system within itself.Moreover, attempts to do so lead to confusion and disorder 183 .179 Capra, The Tao of Physics (3d edition, Shambala, Boston, 1991), pp. 328-33.180 Piaget (1971), p.34.181 Boyd, Patterns of Conflict, p.144.182 Boyd, Strategic Game of ? & ?, p.28.183 Boyd, Organic Design, p.20. See also Strategic Game of ? & ? , p.41.117