Valuing the epistemic in the search for betterment : the nature and role of critical learning systems

Thirty years have past since Churchman claimed that the most important feature of the systems approach was not whether it simply leads to the ends that decision makers desire, but whether it leads to ends that are ethically defensible (Churchman, 1971). This is of particular concern to those involved with any process of development. Thus, in addition to considering instrumental questions about what it is that could be done, the systemic development 'agent' must also address moral questions of what it is that should be done. The advantage of a systemic perspective in this regard, is the appreciation that actions are invariably also interactions. Thus what any one individual might actively do in the world, can, and frequently does have an influence on other humans as well as on the 'rest of nature', directly or indirectly. And this has ethical implications. To live ethically- to make decisions that are ethically defensible-is to act on what it is that we feel we ought to do, only after taking the interests and preferences of others, fully into account (Singer, 1995). And such accounts need to particularly focus on the future as a key perspective, in order to include the needs and interests and preferences of those yet unborn, as well as to indicate potential future consequences of intended present actions.