Рефлексивные процессы и управление. Сборник материалов XI Международного симпозиума 16-17 октября 2017 г., Москва

For analyzing the evolution of cybernetics we use the idea of the system configurator offered by V. A. Lefebvre (Lefebvre, 1967). The idea is that the researcher selects the most significant points of view on the object of research. The object is projected on several screens. The screens are connected with each other. The researcher can correlate various points of view on an object.

We will define structuring positions of the configurator in the context of the traditional points of view of scientific analysis:

– philosophical level (science philosophy – basic types of scientific rationality);

– methodological level (basic paradigms and objects of a research, methodology of scientific approach);

– theoretical level (the basic providing areas of knowledge);

– methodical level (basic methods, models, technologies).

The configurator for the analysis of the evolution of cybernetics is presented in Table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1. The generalized results of the philosophical and methodological analysis of the evolution of cybernetics (philosophical, methodological and theoretical levels).

Table 2. The generalized results of the philosophical and methodological analysis of the evolution of cybernetics (methodical level)

The post-non-classical scientific rationality integrates both classical, and non-classical rationality. As a result cybernetics must be considered as an uniform area of knowledge. In post-non-classical representation of cybernetics all levels are integrated into general cybernetics of the first, second and third order. This process is achieved through the system of ontologies, which establishes self-developing reflexive-active environments.

In the last decades the Russian interdisciplinary scientific society has shown considerable interest in the philosophical bases of cybernetics development (Novikov, 2016). In 2017 the WOSC initiative was essential in the process of bringing the worldwide scientific community together for joint discussions.

Post-non-classical scientific rationality: third-order cybernetics

Post-non-classical scientific rationality broadens the field of reflexion on scientific activity. It takes into consideration the correlation of the acquired knowledge about an object not only with the features of means and operations but also with valuable and target structures. At the same time the connection of inner-scientific goals with extra-scientific ones, social values and aims is explicated. Moreover, the problem of their correlation with the comprehension of valuable and target orientations of the scientific activities subject is also solved.

In the context of this rationality basic scientific approaches to cybernetics and control have to be focused on harmony causal (cause and effect) and teleologic (target determination) approaches.

In post-non-classical scientific rationality there is a transformation of philosophical constructivism. It becomes "softer". The emphasis is on communicative processes of the subjects forming reality, on the influence of these processes on restrictions of their freedom (Lektorski, 2001). Freedom is thought of not as control, but as establishment of an equal partnership with what is out of the person: with natural processes, with other persons, with the values of other cultures, with social processes. Such an approach assumes non-reduced variety, pluralism of different positions and points of view, cultural systems engaging with each other in dialogue and changing as a result of interaction. This new understanding of the person and the natural relation is the basis if not the ideal anthropocentrism, but the idea of joint evolution.

Self-developing systems are in the center of attention of post-non-classical scientific rationality (Stepin, 2003).The paradigm "subject – self-developing reflexive-active system (environment)" (Lepskiy, 2010) becomes a key paradigm of control and cybernetics. It is important to note that the environment is considered to be the meta-subject. As a result the paradigm can be presented as "subject – meta-subject".

A self-developing reflexive-active environment is a metasubject, which possesses invariant similar to the properties of subjects: purposefulness (activity), reflexivity, communicativeness, sociality, ability to develop, etc. Such an environment has integrity that essentially distinguishes it from networks. This is an interaction of active elements, organized in a special way. Active elements can be created on the basis of natural intelligence (the personality, group, etc.), on the basis of artificial intelligence (agents) and also on the basis of integration of natural and artificial intelligence.