The purpose of second-order cybernetics

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Kybernetes

ISSN: 0368-492X

Online from: 1972

Subject Area: Electrical & Electronic Engineering

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Document Information:
Title:	The purpose of second-order cybernetics
Author(s):	Ranulph Glanville, (CybernEthics Research, Southsea, UK)
Citation:	Ranulph Glanville, (2004) "The purpose of second-order cybernetics", Kybernetes, Vol. 33 Iss: 9/10, pp.1379 - 1386
Keywords:	Cybernetics, Systems theory
Article type:	Conceptual Paper
DOI:	10.1108/03684920410556016 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Abstract:	In this paper, the origins of second-order Cybernetics are sketched, and are particularly identified with circularity: a quality that was at the basis of the studies that lead to the creation of the field of Cybernetics. The implications of the new analysis that second-order Cybernetics (Cybernetics treated cybernetically: that is, Cybernetics when circularity is taken seriously) gives rise to are considered in terms of the two qualities that Wiener gave to Cybernetics in his eponymous book – control and communication. Finally, the analysis is applied to that other proto-cybernetic concept, purpose. It is shown that (and in consequence how) the notion of goal and purpose must be radically reconsidered in second-order Cybernetic systems.