Science's First Mistake: Delusions in Pursuit of Theory [Hardcover]

Overall, I think this is potentially a very interesting and important book, and the authors are probably two of the very few who would attempt this and that might just succeed. It is clearly somewhat of a risky book for a publisher but as in all such risks the rewards are potentially high. --Professor Guy Fitzgerald, Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University<br /><br />Excellent and ground breaking. Very well written. Engaging in reading. It is a much needed and original contribution, which will become a key reference in contemporary academic social sciences thinking. --Professor Fernando Ilharco, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Lisbon

Excellent and ground breaking. Very well written. Engaging in reading. It is a much needed and original contribution, which will become a key reference in contemporary academic social sciences thinking. --Professor Fernando Ilharco, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Lisbon

The purpose of the book is to deconstruct the process of knowledge discovery and theory construction on the basis of the four concepts mentioned below, and thereby to discuss the circumstances under which all scientific premises come to be constructed. The implications for theory and method are discussed against four primary and intrinsically interrelated concepts that should be of immediate interest to all scientific disciplines: namely observation, paradox, delusion, and most importantly self-reference. The book then reflects on various modes of theory-construction and -utilization. Grounded in the tradition of second-order cybernetics, the concept of self-reference is used in the context of systems theory in order to examine the mode in which observation, paradox and delusion become 'structurally coupled' with cognition. This has wide-ranging implications for not only the discovery of knowledge in itself, but also various expressions of knowledge, be they framed by reductionism or causality, and even those grandiosely claiming to approach a form of Grand Unification (as in Physics). It eventually concludes that so-called 'rigour' is merely reinforced self-reference, imposed by the power that comes with the utility delivered by the self-reference.Rooted in information systems analysis this fresh and audacious examination of knowledge discover and theory construction makes an important contribution to the understanding of how we employ scientific method.

Ian Angell is Professor of Information Systems in the Department of Management at the London School of Economics. His research interests include organizational and national IT policies, strategic information systems, computer security and systemic risk. He has written fourteen books, including The New Barbarian Manifesto (2000), and over a hundred research papers. Dionysios Demetis is a Research Associate at London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include Anti-Money-Laundering schemes and related technologies in the banking sector, Systems Theory, Computer Security and the global consequences of Information Systems.