Trivialization and empiricity
Siegfried J. Schmidt · Systems Research · 1996
Relying on von Foerster's distinction between trivial and non-trivial machines, this paper discusses some crucial arguments for a constructivist concept of ‘empiricity’. The concept ‘empirical’ is oriented towards (social) knowledge and knowledge-constructing operations instead of objects or reality, thus following the strategy of systems theory to replace the subject/object difference by the difference system/environment. Consequently, scientific empirical research is located at the level of second-order observation in the social system science.