Soros and Reflexivity

Soros, "Open Society," page 7:

On the one hand, the thinking participants seek to understand the situation in which they participate. I cal this the passive or cognitive function. On the other hand, they participate in the situation that they seek to understand. I call this the active or participating function. Instead of a one-way street, there is a two-way interaction... The intererference introduces an element of indeterminancy into both functions that would be absent if the two functions operated independently of each other. That is what I call reflexivity.

Page 13:

Karl Marx claimed that the material conditions of production determined the ideological superstructure; Sigmund Freud claimed that human behavior was dictated by the unconscious; and classical economic theory was based on the assumption of perfect knowledge... In accordance with the standards prevailing in the nineteenth century, the explanation had to be deterministic in order to qualify as scientific.

Page 15:

The paradox of the liar was for the longest time treated as an intellectual curiosity and was neglected because it interfered with the otherwise successful pursuit of truth. Truth was defined as the correspondence of statements to external facts.

Page 21:

We should remember, however, that our fallibility is liable to create a gap between intentions and outcomes. Instead of the futile pursuit of the perfect design -- whether in the form of communism or in the form of markets that tend toward equilibrium -- we should content ourselves with the next best thing: a society that holds itself open to change and improvement. This is the concept of open society.