International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

The use of the synergy concept to explore all kinds of relationships, as proposed by P. CORNING (1998b, p. 27-28)

CORNING writes: "What are the implications of a "synergy paradigm?" First, it could serve as a lingua franca for the cooperative/emergent/interactional effects that are observed and studied by various disciplines. By removing a language barrier, the term could facilitate cross-disciplinary communication and understanding.

"Second, by directing our attention to context-specific "historical" relationships and interactions, rather than "mechanisms"or reductionist "laws", the synergy paradigm encourages a multi-leveled, multi-disciplinary research and theory that is free from the intellectual shackles of 19th century Newtonian physics. Furthermore, the synergy paradigm draws our attention to the functional aspect of cooperative effects. As noted earlier, concepts with broad applicability to many different kinds of phenomena may play an important theoretical role in the sciences. The synergy concept provides a framework for integrating the research in various disciplines that may be relevant for understanding the broader causal role of cooperative phenomena in nature and evolution. To borrow the "pre-owned" parable of the blind men and the elephant, if we are ultimately to make sense of the whole, we will need to pool our discoveries about both the parts and the whole.

"All scientific concepts are inescapably Procustean and selective, highlighting certain aspects of the phenomenal world to the exclusion of others. None can be all things to all scientists. The ultimate test is fruitfulness. By the standard, the concept of synergy would seem to hold promise. Among other things, it offers a theoretical framework which, like the concept of natural selection, can provide a focus for explaining a major aspect of the evolutionary process, namely, the evolution of organized complexity. Indeed, an invigorated science of synergy would shine a spotlight on a fundamental property of the phenomenal world. Equally important, because it is pan-disciplinary (and egalitarian) in its methodological implications, the concept of synergy could provide a useful bridge between various specialized disciplines. If synergy can provide functional advantages elsewhere in the phenomenal world, why not also within the scientific enterprise itself". (Ibid)