Critical Rationalism for Practice and its Relationship to Critical Systems Thinking

Critical rationalism for practice (CRforP) attempts to provide a framework for practice by extending Karl Popper’s epistemology of science (critical rationalism). In this paper, it is argued that CRforP can be considered within the debate about the nature of critical systems thinking (CST). In the paper, the bare bones of CRforP are fleshed out in order to consider issues that have been central to the CST debate, such as competence and expertise, moral choice and understanding of social context. CRforP brings a new perspective to the debate; the intent is that it should be applied in practice alongside already established CST approaches. To do so requires CST to be understood as an intellectual domain rather than a developed theory associated with one particular framework, metamethodology or metatheory. This conception of CST allows CRforP to be compared with existing approaches with a view to their use in practice.