Natural Science as Counterfactual

2021-07 Dave Snowden

• A fresh perspective and new approach on understanding complex systems, drawing on physics and philosophy
  • Makes a lot of the modernist/postmodernist and social constructivist/critical realist conflicts irrelevant
  • Potentially reduce wasted effort and offer validation

• Social science provides valuable insights and can act as a restriction on what's achievable in social systems
  • No need for social science to rigidly follow the natural science model

• Constructor Theory is introduced as a tool to comprehend how social science constructs meaning
  • Social science theories function as constructors, enabling the emergence of shared meaning
  • Counterfactuals and constructors are proposed as new concepts for understanding sense-making in complex systems
    • Affordances are probably counterfactuals
    • Assemblages and Agency a type of constructor that can be challenged or modified