ABSTRACT
If there is anything like a central intellectual fascination in this century it is probably the discovery of the observer.1
Introduction Under the title of ‘new systems theory’ the last decades have seen the development of a host of promising concepts, which propagate a radical departure from our current understanding of the world.2 These ideas were developed in the spirit of the General Systems Theory, an explicit aim of which was to develop abstract, general concepts that were applicable to many different disciplines. Nevertheless, the concepts of new systems theory have found hardly any recognition in the wider research community. Possible reasons for this apparent negligence might be found, on the one hand, in the complexity of the ideas and thus the effort that is necessary to become acquainted with them, and on the other hand – and probably more importantly – in the ‘revolutionary’ novelty of the ideas, which made them (almost) impossible to grasp within the conventional frame of mind.3
