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Introduction

Entering the argument

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Liberating Systems Theory

Part of the book series: Contemporary Systems Thinking ((CST))

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Abstract

I have decided to present four insights into Liberating Systems Theory prior to the thesis. Placing these at the end of the book would doom them to neglect, as if they belonged in some quiet backwater, and would miss an opportunity to reveal why the thesis was written. This may seem a little unorthodox, but an underlying purpose of my argument is to promote the idea of breaking away from accepted ways of discourse and other practices — in particular for systems thinking. To do this for the sake of being different would be worthless, but to show that challenge and liberation leads to an enriching of our intellectual and life-worlds is not.

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Notes

  1. For example, if an empirical scientist says that an account of ‘whatever’ is irrational, that only states the account is not valid in terms of empirical rationality, and does not state the account is absolutely and in all senses irrational. Also note that irrationality refers to a perception of an argument that appears to be counter-logical, and must be distinguished from nonrationality, which refers to emotions, the subconscious, etc.

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© 1990 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Flood, R.L. (1990). Introduction. In: Liberating Systems Theory. Contemporary Systems Thinking. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2477-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2477-3_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-2479-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-2477-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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