Scientific Atheism as a Cultural System

The scientific study of atheism

Gesture as a Cultural System

WHEN GREGORY BATESON was conducting fieldwork in New Guinea, his friends among the native Iatmul could not understand why he had to work so hard to learn their language: “But our language is easy to understand” they told him, “we just talk.”1 I wonder how Romans would react to an American studying their gestures from a distance of two millennia. A predictable response would be that their body l...

Design as a Socio-cultural Cognitive System

The New Atheism

In what may be his best book to date, Victor Stenger (Professor Emeritus of Physics) provides a much needed summary, elaboration, and defense of the main theses of the so-called “New Atheists” (NAs), known for their widely-publicized, unrelenting, and passionate critiques of theism and religion in general. Among these NAs, Stenger includes authors of recent bestsellers in the United States: Sam...

System Analysis as Scientific Inquiry

Information systems are understood as models or representations of an application domain. System analysis is a mode of inquiry for purposes of understanding the domain and effecting change in it. Scientific inquiry also aims for understanding and description of domain. In contrast to system analysis, scientific inquiry is based on a 4000-year history. Its processes and methods are well accepted...