Unifying Epistemologies by Combining World, Description and Observer
Stuart A. Umpleby · 2007
The epistemologies of realism, constructivism, and pragmatism can be viewed as emphasizing different combinations of world, description and observer. Realism emphasizes world and description. Constructivism emphasizes observer and description. Pragmatism emphasizes observer and world. These three epistemologies are similar to three stages in the development of cybernetics – engineering cybernetics, biological cybernetics, and social cybernetics. Viewing the three epistemologies as emphasizing different facets of a triangle clarifies the relationships among the epistemologies and creates an opportunity for unifying them. Advocates of each point of view tend to direct a conversation toward the issues of greatest interest in that epistemology.