Re: "Empirical Observation" - Redundant?

[Terry Peterson <terry@gts.demon.co.uk>]

On any philosophical definition, "empirical observation" is a tautology;
"deja vu, all over again", to quote Yogi Berra.

It's difficult to link the passages from MWI, quoted by Charlie, which
review and reject classical Rationalism and Empiricism, with the
questions he asks about pride in work and barriers to achieving the
organisations purpose.  However, let's take a stab.

There is no demonstrable link to between Deming's teachings on
"people/motivation" and C I Lewis' work.  There is, however, a faint
echo of 'intrinsic motivation' in Lewis' biography.  He acknowledges the
influence of Mill's Utilitarianism on his own philosophy; but doesn't
want to be labelled a utilitarian or a hedonist, "because 'pleasure' and
'pain', as synonyms for what makes human life good or bad, represent a
gross caricature.  He says that"achievement" and 'frustration' would
come equally near the mark and, 'self-realisation' would come nearer".
Given their similar backgrounds, we could suppose that Lewis would have
concurred with Deming's personal philosophy of "never stop learning, and
always value people as individuals".

Lewis places great emphasis on the idea that knowledge results from
human co-operation. He does not specifically refer to 'system', however,
it does not require a large leap of imagination to see systems /
organisations as human achievements, based on co-operation.
This theme is taken up by Deming , who describes a system as a network
of interdependent components, (processes), which work together to
achieve the aim of the system;
·       Without an aim there is no system,
·       Co-operation, (not competition), is required between the parts
of the system,
·       Effectiveness of connections and communications between
processes can be, at least, as important as the performance of the
individual processes,
·       Customer and suppliers are part of the system.

Hope this is some help
-- 
Terry Peterson
IQA Registered Consultant