When Does System Behaviour Remain Causally Guided? Viability Conditions for Complex Systems

Abstract

ABSTRACT Systems research has long examined how feedback, delay, accumulation and regulation generate dynamic behaviour, yet less attention has been given to when system behaviour remains causally guided. This paper develops causal guidance as a viability‐dependent system‐level property, referring to the condition under which relations among actions, feedback and consequences remain interpretable over time. Building on systems research, system dynamics, causal reasoning and viability‐oriented traditions, it proposes a framework organized around four enabling dimensions: activation, coherence, delay and damping. The paper argues that causal guidance is not guaranteed by causal relations, feedback structures or functional viability alone, but depends on the mutual calibration of these dimensions. It then translates the dimensions into diagnostic indicators for distinguishing strong, weakened and degraded causal guidance. The framework contributes a diagnostic vocabulary for assessing when causal reasoning, feedback learning and intervention remain behaviourally meaningful in complex systems.