Faced with radical uncertainty, cognitive conflicts and the growing complexity of human interactions, the social sciences are faced with the challenge of rigorously formalizing the dynamics of power, perception and adaptation. In this context, the Method of Relativized Conceptualization (MRC1), developed by Mioara Mugur-Schächter as part of her research in Quantum Mechanics, offers a structuring framework for the construction of models integrating the relativity of perceptions and representations. MRC is a conceptualization method born of epistemological reflection on a discipline where access to phenomena is limited and formalization plays a central role. Its extension to the human and social sciences, via Relativized Cindynics, illustrates its potential for analyzing complex phenomena without yielding to analogies or conjectures stemming from the quantum turn.
Before designing MRC, Mioara Mugur-Schächter invalidated von Neumann's thesis asserting the impossibility of hidden variables in Quantum Mechanics. To understand the relationship between Cindynics, whose models are built with MRC, and Quantum Mechanics, we therefore need to take a closer look at the evolution of Mioara Mugur-Schächter's work, and its actual scope.
Mioara Mugur-Schächter began her career as a physicist in Romania during the Cold War. Having gained access to the book in which von Neumann set out his thesis, she undertook to demonstrate its invalidity. Due to the political situation, she resigned from her position, but managed to send her demonstration to Louis de Broglie, who decided to invite her to France to prepare a thesis. This is how Mioara Mugur-Schächter arrived in France, where she was able to complete her thesis under the supervision of Louis de Broglie, who emphasized2 its exceptional qualities. She then obtained a position at the University of Reims, where she devoted herself to Quantum Mechanics. It's interesting to note that Louis de Broglie is the father of wave-corpuscule duality, which shows the possibility of the coexistence of two different models of the same physical phenomenon, which, like von Neumann's thesis, raises the question of models. Mioara Mugur-Schächter then turned her attention to the very process of constructing models, and began to design a method of relativized conceptualization, and in so doing, while continuing to do Quantum Mechanics, she entered the field of epistemology. MRC can be used in the field of Quantum Mechanics, but it is an epistemological method with a general scope that goes far beyond Quantum Mechanics.
In the mid-1990s, Georges-Yves Kervern discovered MRC, which at the time was known as description theory. Following discussions with Mioara Mugur-Schächter in late 1994, the first MRC model of a danger situation was developed. Subsequently, the need to take specific account of non-consensual situations, particularly in the information domain, led to the extension of these first MRC models. Initially, a relativization of the notion of situation led to second-order models3 and the formalization of the notion of a spectrum of relative situations. Then, a relativization of the notion of spectrum, notably linked to the relativity of the perception of powers, led to third-order models4, making it possible to describe the dynamics of mobilization, insurrection or coups5. Mioara Mugur-Schächter has suggested that all modelling of order greater than one should be grouped together under the term Relativized Cindynics. She continues6 to develop her method, and the cindynic models take into account the 2022 evolution of MRC.
Meanwhile, the social sciences have experienced a quantum turn, supported in particular by Alexander Wendt, who defends the panpsychic hypothesis that consciousness is a quantum property of matter. For Wendt, this hypothesis is justified by the absence7 of a theory of consciousness. And, in the field of political engineering, Russian researchers are also attempting to use models derived from Quantum Mechanics, by modeling destabilization operations8 as oscillators whose number of oscillation modes increases with the energy supplied to them, with the flow of funding for opposition movements playing the role of energy. These approaches involve trying to import laws or models from Quantum Mechanics into another field. This is not the cindynic approach at all: cindynic models are specific descriptions of hazard phenomena, formalized with MRC, which is an epistemic method without equivalent, and of general scope. To think that Cindynics are directly linked to Quantum Mechanics, and would have bandwagonned the quantum turn, would be to fail to understand that Mioara Mugur-Schächter's work is not limited to Quantum Mechanics.
Many people, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, are intimidated by the mathematical aspect of MRC. This is the case, for example, with Edgar Morin, or with some scholars in West Africa, where mathematicians, on the other hand, are not troubled by this aspect. In practice, however, MRC is not a mathematical method or language: it's an epistemic language, enabling us to freely and rigorously formalize any phenomenon. For Cindynics, this has notably allowed us to formalize the notions of resilience, power (puissance, might), power (pouvoir9, not might) and diversity10. In practice, it is by no means necessary to know Quantum Mechanics to formalize concepts with MRC: after an initial training period, using the method is fairly straightforward, and can look like using an object-oriented language. The result is that concepts are rigorously formalized, giving the designer solid confidence in the constructed models, which emerge progressively and naturally at each description step.
From an operational point of view, cindynic models can be used in two ways: either without any prior knowledge of MRC, or, if necessary, after learning MRC, which enables users to extend the models to better fit the specific situations they face. Thanks to MRC, Cindynics are not only rigorously formalized, but also freely adaptable, and this adaptability fosters appropriation of the models, and hence their use.
Finally, from a conceptual point of view, MRC has enabled the emergence of Relativized Cindynics, which leads to a broader definition of the object of Cindynics: the dynamics of human interactions, which brings it closer to that of the social sciences. Thanks to MRC, this would make it possible to propose a formal approach to the social sciences. And this is exactly an application that Mioara Mugur-Schächter envisioned when designing MRC.
WENDT, Alexander. Quantum mind and social science : unifying physical and social ontology. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-107-08254-0.