Chapter 2: Philosophic Perspectives and the Autonomous Holon

Viable Systems Theory (VST) is a cybernetic approach to social systems that provides an important entry into the understanding of how and why social collectives are able to survive and deal with their pathologies. Concepts like self-organization (which is concerned with changes in structure), and autopoiesis (which often has a convoluted explanation) are the bedrock of this topic.

Most developers of the field of VST are exclusively concerned with the important epistemological grain of the theory and its applications. So few are concerned with its ontology, and this leads one to ask why ontology is important. The answer lies in the notion that epistemology provides only part of a theoretical base, and one should not leave essential ingredients to theory building abandoned in a paradigmatic horizon waiting to be discovered. We shall explain that epistemology and ontology are together fundamental to any philosophical exploration of science, and provide a map of philosophical perspectives.