From Physics to Art: An Inquiry into the Relationship between Self-Reference and the Ill-Structuredness of Knowledge

Abstract: Knowledge systems exhibit varying degrees of openness in their domain boundaries, relationships among variables, solution paths, and evaluation criteria. This paper draws on the concepts of well-structuredness and ill-structuredness to characterize these differences. It also adopts an extended conception of self-reference as a system’s capacity to reintegrate its own states, representations, behaviors, or rules into its operation. On this basis, the paper examines representative knowledge systems, including physics, biology, economics, sociocultural studies, and art, and proposes that, as research objects exhibit a greater capacity for self-reference, the associated knowledge systems also display more pronounced ill-structuredness.