Meta Rational Ways Of Knowing

Abstract

Current approaches to systems thinking, despite evolving over time, remain entrenched in rational analysis. Stemming from unquestioned roots in Western philosophy and axioms of classical science, systems thinkers have omitted entire ways of knowing practised across human cultures globally over many centuries. Systemists have not developed a foundational philosophy of adequate sophistication to concisely articulate the systemic worldview and its approach to knowledge and action. Contradictions exist between espoused systems concepts and methods and practices. Action Research, a closely allied discipline, as well as several approaches to inquiry in cultures outside the modern West, have evolved with more sophistication. These approaches include ways of knowing beyond the rational-analytic, which can be termed as meta-rational. A useful start to mitigate this gap in systems thinking and reinstate a wider epistemology is found in the Four Ways of Knowing framework, incubated in a contemporary Action Research practice. Early researchers with a traditional Asian pedagogy in sculpture and a corporate renewal case application reveal the advantages of this framework. Meta-rational knowing is useful in tackling marginalisation in contexts of underdevelopment. Incorporating meta-rational ways of knowing supports the future development of a transmodern systems thinking.