The Third Order Cybernetics of Eric Schwarz

Abstract

There have been many discussions in the area of cybernetics that highlights the importance of second order cybernetics, with its implied notions of autopoiesis, and its capacity to represent the social as a living system (e.g., Yolles, 2018; Yolles, 2018a). Eric Schwarz was a professor emeritus from 1999 at the Institute of Physics of the Faculty of Science at the University of Neuchâte, Switzerland, where he was honorary research director, and former head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Systemic Studies of the University of Neucâtel (CIES) founded in 1988. He produced the first explicitly third order cybernetic model at his cybernetic unit in 1988 in collaboration with the other members of CIES. He has written 21 papers on the development of his paradigm, but most of his many publications have been through conferences, and they have been lost or are not easily accessible, and access to existing papers appears to be continually reducing. Those papers lost cannot be regained easily since he passed away in March 2015 at the age of 81 after declining ill-health. It is for this reason that I have put together this collection of his papers that I have available.