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“Order through Fluctuation”: An Evolutionary Epistemology for Human Systems **
Author(s) -
Dell Paul F.,
Goolishian Harold A.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
australian journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0156-8779
DOI - 10.1002/j.1467-8438.1981.tb00112.x
Subject(s) - ilya , order (exchange) , order and disorder , transformation (genetics) , stability (learning theory) , statistical physics , epistemology , complex system , non equilibrium thermodynamics , mathematics , process (computing) , first order , computer science , mathematical economics , physics , philosophy , economics , artificial intelligence , quantum mechanics , linguistics , biochemistry , chemistry , finance , machine learning , gene , operating system
Most approaches to systems theory, group theory and family theory suffer from two major inadequacies. First, they are heavily oriented toward structure (e.g. structure of the system) as opposed to process. Second, because of this bias, such theories overemphasize stability at the expense of change and transformation. In contrast, Ilya Prigogine's concept of “order through fluctuation” demonstrates how systems suddenly organize themselves and, equally suddenly, make discontinuous shifts from one coherent order to another. As a paradigm, “order through fluctuation” constitutes a basic nonequilibrium ordering principle that governs the forming and unforming of systems at all levels .