Zhichang ZHU (PhD)
Abstract: Based on a comparative study between an Oriental systems approach, WSR, and two Western ones, TOP and MMD, this paper highlights and analyses both commonalities and differences among these approaches. It is first tried to show that these systems approaches are converging into an intention to (1) articulate a systems vision which is built upon a conception of differentiation and multiplicity, (2) move the concept of systems study beyond the domination of technical dimension towards a holistic inquiry of relations in the world, between human and the world, and among human fellows, (3) pursue synergy among various approaches and inquiring systems, (4) emphases human values and relations, and (5) stand on each own cultural tradition while open to 'alien' ones. It is then tried to argue that on the other hand differences among these approaches should not be ignored, in terms of their explicit or unspoken meta-theoretical assumptions. After this analysis, this paper suggests that cultural differences among systems approaches might probably have been shadowed or overshadowed by both commonalities between Western and Eastern traditions and differences within a same cultural tradition. In the conclusion, it is further suggested that by being more consciously open to and learning from each other, systems approaches in both the East and the West may probably have more to offer for dealing with the increasing complexity which confronts humankind.
Keywords: systems approaches, Western/Eastern tradition, commonalities, differences, convergence, synergy, comparative study.
1. INTRODUCTION
The author of this paper is a designer of one of these approaches. After formulating his own approach, he realises that in the Western systems community there exist systems approaches which hold similar concerns, beliefs and desires with his. A journey of comparative study of these approaches suggests, to him, that despite of differences among cultural traditions of the populations, among practical experiences of the designers, and among social-political contexts in which these approaches emerged, developed and applied, a convergent movement among Eastern and Western systems approaches has recently emerged and is becoming significant. So far the journey has brought the author to such a stage which convinces him that by conscious and insistent mutual-informing and -learning among systems scientists world-wide, systems approaches developed in the East and the West may be able to improve their competence more wisely, and therefore able to have more to offer for dealing with the increasing complexity that confronts humankind.
This paper is a report of what appear interesting and significant to the author during the journey. In the next section, the three studied approaches, two of which developed in the West, one consolidated in the East, are outlined. The following two sections present, respectively, commonalities and differences perceived among these approaches. At the end of the paper, conclusions and suggestions will be made in terms of the convergence and divergence among developing systems approaches world-wide.
The systems approaches studied are the Multiple Perspective Concept (TOP) formulated by Linstone, the Multi-modal Systems Design (MMD) by de Raadt, and the Wuli-Shili-Renli Approach (WSR) by Gu and Zhu.
TOP is a two-decade old multiple perspective concept advanced to help the systems practitioner bridge the gap between analysis and action, between model and the real world. Criticising the prevailing systems approaches which are one-sidedly characterised by the traditional perspective of the engineer and scientist, TOP provides a three-dimensional view to address real-world systems which are complex. The three perspectives it suggests are: T - the technical perspective; O - the organisational or societal perspective; and P - the personal or individual perspective. It is asserted that the different perspectives force us to distinguish how we are looking form what we are looking at: we see the system through different filters. It is asserted that the three types of perspectives have inherently different characteristics and properties, each of which yields insights on a system that are not attainable with the others. While emphasising that the O and P perspectives are not to replace the T perspective, TOP claims that the perspectives do not represent different mathematical models but very different sets of underlying assumptions, axioms, or paradigms. Documentation of TOP can be found in Linstone (1984, 1985, 1989), Linstone et al. (1981, 1987).
MMD is presented as an alternative approach to social systems design which is said to have taken advantage of the idea of 'multi-modal cultural ecology' in reality, in human life, and in knowledge. Criticising the reductionist tendency of guiding the affairs of humanity by a mechanical and utilitarian world view that considers humanity as a mean of production and subject to industrial goals, multi-modal thinking is reported to provide a theoretical framework that brings technology and humanity together. It is argued that each modal level, or 'law sphere', in modal ecology is governed by its own order or set of laws, which is unique and irreducible; that is, one cannot totally understand one modal order in terms of another, and therefore it requires a distinct intellectual discipline to study each modal order. Drawing upon the ideas of homonorphism, expansion, and transduction among modal levels, MMD is formulated as a methodology which aims at ensuring that all modalities of human life, from the most 'hard' modalities to the most 'soft' ones, be presented and integrated in social systems design. MMD is documented mainly in de Raadt (1989, 1995).
WSR is said to be a systems approach which developed from a distinct tradition: the ancient Chinese philosophy and the systems practice in China since the 1950s'. More precisely speaking, WSR tries to combine insights from the Neo-Confucianist concept of Li (essence, patterns, principles, reasoning) and the teaching of Ge Wu Qiong Li (Investigating things for their utmost lis), and achievements of contemporary systems science, so to provide practitioners with operational systems guidelines in the hope of improving systems research and practice in the Eastern context. In WSR, Wuli denotes to knowledge about objective phenomena, Shili means the ways of our seeing, modelling and doing, while Renli is concerned with human relations. It follows such a viewpoint that there are different lis governing different phenomena, engagement, and relations, one of which cannot be properly understood or tackled in terms of others, therefore we have to seek different ways to deal with different lis. For pedagogical purpose, principles have been suggested, methods introduced, and a methodology presented. WSR is consolidated and documented by Gu and Zhu (1995, 1996a, b), and Zhu (1996a, b, c, d). Discussions in the rest of this paper are based mainly on this author's personal reading and interpretation of Linstone (1989), de Raadt (1989, 1995), Gu and Zhu (1996a, b), and Zhu
3. Commonalities among TOP, MMD and WSR
These three approaches are studied, analysed and presented together due to, primarily, their significant commonalities, or, similarities, which seem to have overshadowed the differences among their cultural traditions.
3.1 A Systems Vision Built on Differentiation And Multiplicity The most striking similarity among these three approaches lies on that all of them, each in its own cultural language, try to overcome the reductionist tendency as they perceived in traditional systems approaches, and doing so by articulating a 'systems vision' which emphasises differentiation and multiplicity in 'the world', of our perspectives, and among human inquiring systems. Such vision is manifested in TOP as multi-perspective, in MMD as multi-modality, and in WSR as multi-Li.
First, all three approaches are designed for dealing with human-social systems rather than just technical ones: TOP is for 'dealing with complex sociotechnical systems' (Linstone, 1989:329), MMD is concerned with 'a more humane design of social systems' (de Raadt, 1989:17), WSR is consolidated for conducting 'systems projects' which are viewed to be 'conditioned by Wu (objective existence), Shi (affairs and engagements), and Ren (human relations with all their objectivity, subjectivity and intersubjectivity)' (Zhu, 1996a:24).
It is, then, this common desire of dealing with (and improving) human-social systems that made the TOP, MMD and WSR designers pained to see the one-dimensional reductionist tendency in traditional 'systems approaches'.
Linstone (1989) contributes a whole section to analyse 'the most successful "religion" of modern times', 'the traditional perspective of the engineer and scientist', urging systems scientists to proceed beyond the inadequate T perspective.
de Raadt (1989) has a whole section titled 'Reductionism', criticising the tendency in social systems design which reduces the modal ecology of society, of human life and of knowledge into 'one modality' only: 'This reductionism considers the order in one or more modalities exclusively as a special manifestation of the order in another single modality that becomes a type of ultimate key to understanding. The development of an explanatory model is then attempted, in which all, or part of reality, is explained on the basis of one modality', and he claimed to have found such reductionism in Bentham, Mill, Marx, Comte, Skinner, Spencer, and traditional systems approaches which 'often lead to social agony and the dehumanisation of the individual' as well as of human life as a whole (de Raadt, 1989:19-21).
Zhu (1996a), in a similar way, uses a whole section to criticise the reductionist thinking manifested in both ancient Chinese culture and contemporary systems practice in that context. According to Zhu, while Confucianism in the ancient time was preoccupied by an overwhelming concern of isolated individual moral cultivation, systems practice in contemporary China today faces a real danger of a different kind of reductionist tendency: the domination of scientism. Zhu criticises the phenomena which he takes as manifestations of reductionism as such: In our systems community, academic journals and research papers are expected to contain, and preferably to be full of, mathematical equations and models. Within project-lists, those which are technology-oriented predominate and are well funded. Should human factors be undeniable, they had better be expressed as secondary variables. What concerns us is not human values or interests, but merely human behaviour. ... Few of us as systems scientists are concerned with the modelling of models. Few are interested in studying human relations in searching for reasons of success or failure in projects, nor human values and interests for their own sake. Fewer still bother to ask such questions: As an expert, do I have vision? What is that vision mean? Who said that? Does it matter? (Zhu, 1996a:22-3).
Zhu continues to question:
We know that the Confucianist view of harmony reduced the Universe into human nature or Mind alone; but haven't we reduced the Universe to something else? We criticise the Confucianists as being epistemologically and methodologically handicapped; but aren't we using a particular kind of model to tackle all situations, or to exclude those situations not 'fitted' to our models from the system? (ibid.). TOP, MMD and WSR are not the only approaches that urge systems scientists to overcome the reductionist tendency of the traditional 'systems approaches' and to move beyond the merely technical definition of systems towards more humanistic and holistic systems inquiries. Before the emerge of TOP, MMD and WSR, Churchman (1970, 1971, 1979a, b) has been arguing for a redefinition of systems approach; Ackoff (1979a, b, 1981) has been criticising the degeneration of OR, crying that 'The future of operational research is past'; Checkland (1981) and other 'soft' systems thinkers have tried great efforts to formulate a new range of systems approaches so to tackle human aspects of systems (or in their own words, 'ill-structured situations', 'messes', etc.); further some other systems thinkers, for example Flood and Jackson (1991), have tried to pave an avenue towards complementary synergy among systems methodologies. All these and other contributions are significant for the movement of overcoming reductionism towards 'truly' systems research and practice.
Yet, TOP, MMD and WSR appear distinct from other systems approaches, in that their designers consciously, explicitly and insistently build their approaches upon a core and unique conception: the differentiation and multiplicity of 'system': system as the complexity in the world, system as human knowledge, system as the way of human inquiry. This conception is emphasised and apparent as such that it cannot be missed even we take merely a quick glance at the titles of the approaches and relevant key papers: Linstone names his approach Multiple Perspective Concept, de Raadt calls his Multi-modal Systems Design, Zhu (1996a) describes the WSR philosophy as 'dealing with differentiated whole'. It is capital important, further, to point out that although criticising the limitation of traditional systems approaches and practice, although being pained of the inadequacy of technical considerations in dealing with social systems, TOP, MMD and WSR are not to devalue or to replace the inquiry of the technical aspect of systems (the T perspective in TOP, the 'hard' modal levels in MMD, and Wuli in WSR). Rather, all of the three approaches insistently contend that research and tackling of the technical aspect of systems are to be augmented (Linstone), transduced (de Raadt), and complemented (Gu and Zhu) with other perspectives, modalities or Lis, which are differentiable and not less important, so to 'bridge the gap between analysis and action, between model and real world' (Linstone, 1989:307), to 'sustain this modal ecology of humane life' (de Raadt, 1989:19), or to 'conduct our systems projects more smoothly and successfully' (Zhu, 1996a).
More precisely, TOP, MMD and WSR contend, respectively, that: Each perspective presents insights not obtainable with the other. We also find it desirable, indeed essential, to call on several perspectives in addressing real-world systems which are complex, which deal with people as well as artefacts ... We emphasise that we are augmenting, not replacing, the T perspective (Linstone, 1989:311-2).
Each modality has its own order and is governed by its own set of laws ... These laws differ from modality to modality, so that is not possible to understand the behaviour of one modality on the basis of the laws of another modality. ... The order in which transduction [among modalities] takes place is not important, ... What is important is the variety of modalities involved ... (de Raadt, 1989:19 and 22).
Wuli Shili Renli ... are differentiable yet inseparable. They constitute an irreducible whole within which one li cannot be fully understood and properly tackled in terms of another. ... all Wuli Shili and Renli will inevitably be involved in, condition, and hence determine the fate of systems practice ... According to the Confucian teaching that 'every kind of things in this world has its own li', we contend that Wu, Shi and Ren naturally have their inherent lis, which are different and distinct from each other, changeable in themselves, and influence each other in every concrete circumstance. Again, following the Confucian argument of different ways for investigating different lis, we suggest that in conducting any systems projects, we systems scientists should bring all Wu, Shi and Ren into our consideration (Zhu, 1996a:2-3 and 22-3). Again:
... any project, especially those in the East, can be viewed as conditioned by a complex whole which is constituted by Wu (objective conditions, e.g., resources and constraints), Shi (events and engagements), and Ren (human relations). Both Confucianism and scientism tend to reduce these rich wholes into one sphere: ethics or techniques. As contrast, I suggest that it is useful, based on insights of Confucianism, to make differences in the rich whole, that is, to investigate laws and regularities governing Wu, to study the ways of our seeing/doing engagements (Shi), and to be concerned with relevant human relations (Ren). Involving into any project, we are dealing with a differentiable whole(s), therefore we had better seek different ways to tackle different lis (regularities, patterns, relations) (Zhu, 1996d:15).