Lecture excerpt in which Russell L. Ackoff argues that analysis alone cannot explain why systems behave as they do. He distinguishes revealing a system's structure and mechanics from explaining its purposes or reasons; to illustrate, he notes that disassembling British and American cars cannot explain why one country drives on the left and the other on the right.
You cannot explain the behavior of a system by analysis. You can reveal its structure and say how it works. But you can't say why it works the way it does. Now, a simple example is the British drive on the other side of the street. Their steering wheel is on the right. Ours is on the left. Now, I can give you and automobile mechanics. All the English and American cars you want. And disassemble them from now to doomsday. And you'll never explain why one drives on the right and the other drives on the left. Because explanation never lies inside of a system.
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