ABSTRACT
In this book I have drawn attention to two fundamentally different ways of thinking about life in organizations. I called the first of these ways of thinking systemic self-organization and argued that it reflects Kant’s approach to eliminating paradox by adopting a “both . . . and” form of reasoning. Paradox is eliminated by positing a number of dualisms and then examining first one side of the dualism, followed by the other, in an alternating serial manner. Following this thought procedure, Kant suggested that humans could understand nature in terms of autonomous systemic wholes, hypothesized to unfold pattern already enfolded in them in an “as if ” manner. Humans could also, quite separately, understand their own actions in terms of the goals they set themselves as autonomous individuals and the judgements they make as to the ethics of their actions. In making such judgements, they formulate hypothetical imperatives and test actions against them, so discovering the nature of universal categorical imperatives. The procedure is the same, whether understanding nature or human action, and it is that of the objectively observing scientist.
