System Dynamics Philosophical Background and Underpinnings

Abstract

Glossary Philosophy The reflection and study of our most basic as-sumptions – or the assumptions themselves. Mental model A mental image of selected concepts and relationships of the world around us which we con-sider relevant for explaining the behavior of a partic-ular system. Presentationalism Synonymous of idealism. The view that material objects or external realities do not exist apart from our knowledge or consciousness of them. Definition of the Subject We all tend to take things for granted. Indeed it is a com-mon place to judge formal models exclusively based on the technical grounds and on the logic with which those mod-els were built without a proper reflection on the assump-tions underlying those models. This omission is even more pressing in complexity and system science, since these ar-eas represent a novel challenge for philosophers of sci-ence – e. g. see an overview in [34]. What is the idea of reality with which we work? What do we assume about human nature? What kind of knowl-edge do we pursue? What kind of knowledge do we obtain? What is the scope of rational inquiry? What are the basis and the implications of our own reasoning methods? The identification of how philosophy has shaped the work of scientists – on a conscious or unconscious level – is essen-tial for comprehending the implications, the limitations, and the scope of our very scientific practice. The lack of concern by scientists for these issues may explain many of their failures which has produced just a sort of iner-tial blindness that is easy to recognize in current scientific debates. One of the strengths of system dynamics (abbreviated, SD) is that it leads us to make explicit our assumptions about the systems we deal with. This attitude, i. e. the im-portance of reflection upon our own assumptions, is also fundamental for the very development and practice of sys-tem dynamics. Many of the debates on different issues of every day scientific practice such as model conceptual-ization, formal model building, validation, policy design, etc. are informed and can be enlightened by the reflection on the philosophical background behind those processes. There are also various fundamental aspects of SD that are yet to be demarcated, e. g. the characterization of SD ex-planations. Furthermore, the ambiguity of the discussions found in large part of related literature, characterized by superficiality, confusion of terms, misdirected arguments, etc. only adds noise and it complicates the advance of a dis-cipline. This article sketches and overview on some basic assumptions regarding the development and the practice of system dynamics. Various suggestions that help to inte-grate various debates are introduced and important clari-fications are also indicated.