Requisite Variety, Cognition, and Scientific Change
Abstract
Multiple theories of scientific change have been prominently promulgated since Kuhn. A quasi-discipline “Scientonomy” has even been proposed to formalize these theories. The cybernetics principle known as “The Law of Requisite Variety (LRV)” when combined with cognitive science insights regarding categorization and its ilk can be used to chart one such formalism. LRV holds that control/prediction can only be assured when the internal complexity of a system matches the external complexity it confronts The key indicator of an activity directed at scientific change comes from examinations of the models which scientists deploy in attempting to link pre-existing explanations with new problems to be explained. Normal science is a reductive activity – limiting the variety encountered. Innovative science is the process of expanding such variety, and scientific change is what happens when the innovative crosses the threshold for normal.