may be complex without being able to be replaced by something »still more simple«. This became evident with the help of computer models of deterministic-recursive systems in which simple mathematical equation systems provide an extremely complex behavior. (2) Irregularity of nature is not treated as an anomaly but becomes the focus of research and thus is declared to be normal. One looks for regularity within irregularity. Non-equilibrium processes are recognized as the source of order and the search for equilibrium is replaced by the search for the dynamics of processes. (3) The classical system-environment model, according to which the adaptation of a system to its environment is controlled externally and according to which the adaptation of the system occurs in the course of a learning process, is replaced by a model of systemic closure. This closure is operational in so far as the effects produced by the system are the causes for the maintenance of systemic organization. If there is sufficient complexity, the systems perform internal self-observation and exert self-control (»Cognition« as understood by Maturana as self-perception and self-limitation, e. g. , that of a cell vis-a. -vis its environment). 22 But any information a system provides on its environment is a system-internal construct. The »reference to the other« is merely a special case of »self-reference«. The social sciences frequently have suffered from the careless way in which scientific ideas and models have been transferred.

Inhalt

Selforganization - the Convergence of Ideas. An Introduction.- I. Epistemological Foundations.- Science and Daily Life: The Ontology of Scientific Explanations.- Self-Organization, Emergent Properties and the Unity of the World.- On a Fundamental Paradigm Shift in the Natural Sciences.- The Cognitive Program of Constructivism and a Reality that Remains Unknown.- II. Selfreference and Selfregulation in Social Systems.- How the Law Thinks: Toward a Constructivist Epistemology of Law.- Self-Regulation in Social Systems.- Systemic Therapy - A Particular Drift Between Systems Theory and Psychotherapy.- Literary Systems as Self-organizing Systems.- Chekhov's Letter: Linguistic System and its Discontents.- III. The Appearance of Structure.- Concepts of Self-Organization in the 19th Century.- Cognitive Systems as Self-Organizing Systems.- IV. The Selforganization of Science.- Self-Organization and Autopoiesis in the Development of Modern Science.- The Selforganization of Science - Outline of a Theoretical Model.- Actor-Networks versus Science as Self-Organizing System: A Comperative View of two Constructivist Approaches.- Self-Organization and New Social Movements.- Person Index.