The system thinking: a problem epistemology

Abstract

This paper proposes an alternative to the epistemological problem of the nature of system. Instead of seeing a system model as representing a real system object, which is often hard to identify, it is conceivable that the model represents the problem posed by the one who has to solve it by modelling. Pointing out and including in the scientific knowledge the role of the observator as proposed below is as important to the communication of models as the identification of a source to the communication of messages.