Tools-Я-us

Our methods of inquiry predetermine most of what we are able to know. While our modes of understanding ought to correspond to the complexities confronting us in our modern technological society, they do not. “Soft” systems methodology helps us focus on what is problematic and how it can be approached — and offers direction to exert moral control over our tools and technologies.[Powerful new technologies] pose basic threats to people and to life on Earth . . . Unless we learn to live with them in safety, our future is likely to be both exciting and short. We cannot hope to foresee all the problems ahead, yet by paying attention to the big, basic issues, we can perhaps foresee the greatest challenges and get some idea of how to deal with them (K. Erik Drexler, 1986).

[1]  Kevin. Robins.  Understanding Info , 1992 .

[2]  J. Alexander,et al.  Images of Organization , 1988 .

[3]  C. Perrow.  Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay , 1975 .

[4]  R. Nisbet.  Sociology as an Art Form , 1962 .

[5]  D. Bohm,et al.  Wholeness and the Implicate Order , 1981 .

[6]  G. Vickers.  The Poverty of Problem Solving , 1983 .

[7]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[8]  A. Dixit,et al.  Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life , 1991 .

[9]  H. Jonas,et al.  Toward a philosophy of technology. , 1979, The Hastings Center report.

[10]  P. Nystrom,et al.  To Avoid Organizational Crises, Unlearn , 1984 .

[11]  Rational Choice Theory Considered as Psychology and Moral Philosophy , 1991 .

[12]  James Gleick.  Chaos: Making a New Science , 1987 .

[13]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. , 1964 .

[14]  D. N. Michael.  With both feet planted firmly in mid-air: Reflections on thinking about the future☆ , 1985 .

[15]  H. Maturana,et al.  Autopoiesis and Cognition : The Realization of the Living (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Scie , 1980 .

[16]  S. Davis.  Future Perfect , 1987 .

[17]  G. Edelman.  Neural Darwinism: The Theory Of Neuronal Group Selection , 1989 .

[18]  Jonathan B. King,et al.  Learning to solve the right problems: The case of nuclear power in America , 1993 .

[19]  S. Covey.  The seven habits of highly effective people : restoring the character ethic , 1989 .

[20]  P. Senge.  The fifth discipline : the art and practice of the learning organization/ Peter M. Senge , 1991 .

[21]  J Reason,et al.  The contribution of latent human failures to the breakdown of complex systems. , 1990, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[22]  Arthur Koestler,et al.  Janus: A Summing Up , 1978 .

[23]  M. Douglas.  How Institutions Think , 1986 .

[24]  A. Dixit,et al.  Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life , 1991 .

[25]  Margarita Azmitia,et al.  Science and Morality: The Role of Values in Science and the Scientific Study of Moral Phenomena , 1990 .

[26]  Andrew Abbott,et al.  Conceptions of Time and Events in Social Science Methods: Causal and Narrative Approaches , 1990 .

[27]  K. Weick.  ENACTED SENSEMAKING IN CRISIS SITUATIONS[1] , 1988 .

[28]  Hannah Arendt,et al.  Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil , 1964 .

[29]  Harville Hendrix,et al.  Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples , 1988 .

[30]  H. Maturana,et al.  Autopoiesis and Cognition , 1980 .

[31]  G. Lakoff,et al.  Metaphors We Live By , 1980 .

[32]  Charles Taylor.  Understanding In Human Science , 1980 .

[33]  R. Bernstein.  Beyond objectivism and relativism , 1983 .

[34]  H. Rittel,et al.  Dilemmas in a general theory of planning , 1973 .

[35]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Soft Systems Methodology in Action , 1990 .

[36]  Murray L. Wax,et al.  After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. , 1981 .

[37]  Richard Rorty,et al.  A Reply to Dreyfus and Taylor , 1980 .

[38]  S. Kraemer.  Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Gregory Bateson , 1993, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[39]  J. Weizenbaum.  Computer Power And Human Reason: From Judgement To Calculation , 1978 .

[40]  D. L. Simms,et al.  Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies , 1986 .