Is anyone else out there missing the clear distinction between these two paradigms? I read it and think I understand, but when i have to apply it...CONFUSION!
Does anyone have a clear and simple way of defining the difference between these two paradigms?
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Science is like.... laboratories, facts... very technical, if you like. There is no place for emotions, e.g. traditional approaches, data analysis, structured approaches like STRADIS
Systems is more...uhm, human-like. It can have a technical perspectives, but it also has a social perspective e.g. human activity system approaches (e.g.SSM), participative approaches (e.g. ETHICS, KADS, WISDM)
Just to add to what Mac said, the science paradigm is positivist (ie the believe that there is one objective truth out there), and applies principles of reductionism to deal with complexity). SRTADIS & RUP are good examples.
The system paradigm looks at the organization more holistically from different perspectives. In other words, the system paradigm is interprevitist (i.e. there is no such as an objective truth but multiple subjective realities.) SSM and Multiview are good examples.