Semanttiset diagrammat ja Karl W. Deutschin yhteiskuntakybemetiikka

Authors

• Osmo Apunen

Abstract

In ’The Nerves of Government’ (1963), Karl W. Deutsch explored possibilities of applying cybernetic theories to the study of political phenomena. Later, in 1979, in his ’Theory of International Politics’, Deutsch levelled methodological criticism against inductivism, reductionism and system theories in the study of international relations. He suggested that methodologically more rigorous research procedures would improve the analytical and explanatory powers of theoretical models concerning phenomena in international relations. In these discussions, Deutsch was looking for »good analogies», or »conceptual schemes», which would be operative in using symbol systems as models of observed reality. However, Deutsch was not very specific in explaining how such conceptual schemes are obtained in practice and especially if research involves material that is in semantic form. Today, this hermeneutical and semiotical problem may be the point of methodological reconstruction of the Deutschian theories. C. S. Peirce, to whom Deutsch made a casual reference, offers semiotical theories and logical conceptions that are dealing with similar problems. Semantical diagrams, suggested as analytical tools in the article, are intended to expose logical spaces and semiotical structures in individual concepts. Such structures and encyclopedic canons may well provide such »good analogies» which Deutsch was looking for in his methodological discussions.