Truth and openness:
An epistemology for interpretive systemology

(Fuenmayor Arocha, Ramsés Leonardo)
Abstract

Both an ontoepistemology for reductionist modern science (counter-ontoepistemology) and an ontology for interpretive systemology have been outlined in the two preceding papers in this special issue of Systems Practice. In the present article, the notion of "truth" is interpreted in terms of both the ontoepistemology of "reductionism" and the ontology of interpretive systemology. Both interpretations are discussed. Such a discussion represents the objective of this paper, that is, to outline the epistemological "face" of the ontoepistemology of interpretive systemology. In order to design that "epistemological face," the relation between ontology and epistemology must be clarified. Such a relation is seen from the standpoint already provided by the ontology. After the discussion on the notion of truth, the general shape of a systemic-interpretive inquiring process is outlined.

This article was published in Systems Practice, Vol. 4, Nº 5, 1991. pp. 473-490. Plenum Press, New York and London.