Systems theory is the
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
study of
systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be
natural
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
or
human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structure, function and role, and expressed through its relations with other systems. A system is "more than the sum of its parts" by expressing
synergy
Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The term ''synergy'' comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία ' from ', , meaning "working together".
History
In Christi ...
or
emergent behavior
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
Emergence ...
.
Changing one component of a system may affect other components or the whole system. It may be possible to predict these changes in patterns of behavior. For systems that learn and adapt, the growth and the degree of
adaptation depend upon how well the system is engaged with its environment and other contexts influencing its organization. Some systems support other systems, maintaining the other system to prevent failure. The goals of systems theory are to model a system's dynamics,
constraints, conditions, and relations; and to elucidate principles (such as purpose, measure, methods, tools) that can be discerned and applied to other systems at every
level of nesting, and in a wide range of fields for achieving optimized
equifinality
Equifinality is the principle that in open systems a given end state can be reached by many potential means. The term and concept is due to Hans Driesch, the developmental biologist, later applied by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the founder of general ...
.
General systems theory is about developing broadly applicable concepts and principles, as opposed to concepts and principles specific to one domain of knowledge. It distinguishes dynamic or active systems from static or passive systems. Active systems are activity structures or components that interact in behaviours and processes or interrelate through formal contextual boundary conditions (attractors). Passive systems are structures and components that are being processed. For example, a program is passive when it is a disc file and active when it runs in memory. The field is related to
systems thinking
Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts. It has been used as a way of exploring and developing effective actio ...
, machine logic, and
systems engineering
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking ...
.
Key concepts
*
System: a group of interacting,
interdependent parts that form a complex whole.
[Montuori, A. 2011. "Systems Approach." Pp. 414–21 in ''Encyclopedia of Creativity'' (2nd ed.). Academic Press. .]
* Boundaries: barriers that define a system and distinguish it from other systems in an environment.
*
Homeostasis
In biology, homeostasis (British English, British also homoeostasis) Help:IPA/English, (/hɒmɪə(ʊ)ˈsteɪsɪs/) is the state of steady internal, physics, physical, and chemistry, chemical conditions maintained by organism, living systems. Thi ...
: the tendency of a system to be resilient with respect to external disruption and to maintain its key characteristics.
* Adaptation: the tendency of a system to make the internal changes necessary to protect itself and continue to fulfill its purpose.
* Reciprocal transactions: circular or cyclical interactions that systems engage in such that they influence one another.
*
Feedback loop
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
: the process by which systems self-correct based on observations of their current state.
*
Throughput
Network throughput (or just throughput, when in context) refers to the rate of message delivery over a communication channel, such as Ethernet or packet radio, in a communication network. The data that these messages contain may be delivered ov ...
: the rate of
energy transfer
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat ...
between a system and its environment over time.
*
Microsystem A microsystem is a self-contained subsystem located within a larger system. It generally constitutes the smallest unit of analysis in systems theory.
Ecological systems theory
Urie Bronfenbrenner uses the term in his ecological systems theory
Ec ...
: the system closest to the client.
* Mesosystem: relationships among systems in an environment.
* Exosystem: a relationship between two systems that has an indirect effect on a third system.
* Macrosystem: a larger system that influences clients, such as policies, administration of entitlement programs, and culture.
*
Equifinality
Equifinality is the principle that in open systems a given end state can be reached by many potential means. The term and concept is due to Hans Driesch, the developmental biologist, later applied by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the founder of general ...
: the way systems can reach the same goal through different paths.
*
Open and closed systems
* Chronosystem: a system composed of significant life events affecting adaptation.
*
Isomorphism: structural, behavioral, and developmental features that are shared across systems.
*
Systems architecture A system architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and more views of a system. An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the ...
:
*
Systems analysis
Systems analysis is "the process of studying a procedure or business to identify its goal and purposes and create systems and procedures that will efficiently achieve them". Another view sees system analysis as a problem-solving technique tha ...
:
Overview
Systems theory is manifest in the work of practitioners in many disciplines, for example the works of biologist
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, ap ...
, linguist
Béla H. Bánáthy, and sociologist
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in socio ...
; in the study of ecological systems by
Howard T. Odum,
Eugene Odum
Eugene Pleasants Odum (September 17, 1913 – August 10, 2002) was an American biologist at the University of Georgia known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology. He and his brother Howard T. Odum wrote the popular ecology textbook, ''Fund ...
; in
Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra (born February 1, 1939) is an Austrian-born American physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist. In 1995, he became a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He is on the faculty of Schumacher ...
's study of
organizational theory
Organizational theory refers to the set of interrelated concepts that involve the sociological study of the structures and operations of formal social organizations. Organizational theory also attempts to explain how interrelated units of organiz ...
; in the study of
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
by
Peter Senge
Peter Michael Senge (born 1947) is an American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learnin ...
; in interdisciplinary areas such as
Human Resource Development
Training and development involve improving the effectiveness of organizations and the individuals and teams within them. Training may be viewed as related to immediate changes in organizational effectiveness via organized instruction, while dev ...
in the works of
Richard A. Swanson; and in the works of educators
Debora Hammond
Debora Hammond (born 1951) is an American historian of science, former Provost and Professor Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies of the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at the Sonoma State University. She is known as author of the 2003 boo ...
and Alfonso Montuori.
As a
transdisciplinary
Transdisciplinarity connotes a research strategy that crosses many disciplinary boundaries to create a holistic approach. It applies to research efforts focused on problems that cross the boundaries of two or more disciplines, such as research on ...
, interdisciplinary, and
multiperspectival endeavor, systems theory brings together principles and concepts from
ontology
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.
Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities ...
, the
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ulti ...
,
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
,
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...
,
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...
, and
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
, as well as
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...
,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
,
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...
,
psychotherapy (especially
family systems therapy
Family therapy (also referred to as family counseling, family systems therapy, marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy) is a branch of psychology and clinical social work that works with families and couples in intimate relationsh ...
), and
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...
.
Systems theory promotes dialogue between autonomous areas of study as well as within
systems science itself. In this respect, with the possibility of misinterpretations, von Bertalanffy believed a general theory of systems "should be an important regulative device in science," to guard against superficial analogies that "are useless in science and harmful in their practical consequences."
Others remain closer to the direct systems concepts developed by the original systems theorists. For example,
Ilya Prigogine
Viscount Ilya Romanovich Prigogine (; russian: Илья́ Рома́нович Приго́жин; 28 May 2003) was a physical chemist and Nobel laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility.
Bio ...
, of
the Center for Complex Quantum Systems at the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, has studied
emergent properties
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
Emergen ...
, suggesting that they offer
analogues for
living systems
Living systems are open self-organizing life forms that interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy and matter.
In the last few decades, some scientists have proposed that a general living system ...
. The
distinction of
autopoiesis
The term autopoiesis () refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts.
The term was introduced in the 1972 publication '' Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living'' by Chilean biologists ...
as made by
Humberto Maturana
Humberto Maturana Romesín (September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher. Many consider him a member of a group of second-order cybernetics theoreticians such as Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Herbert Br� ...
and
Francisco Varela
Francisco Javier Varela García (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001) was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist who, together with his mentor Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopo ...
represent further developments in this field. Important names in contemporary systems science include
Russell Ackoff
Russell Lincoln Ackoff (February 12, 1919 – October 29, 2009) was an American organizational theorist, consultant, and Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Ackoff was a pione ...
,
Ruzena Bajcsy,
Béla H. Bánáthy,
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to a ...
,
Anthony Stafford Beer,
Peter Checkland
Peter Checkland (born 18 December 1930, in Birmingham, UK) is a British management scientist and emeritus professor of systems at Lancaster University. He is the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM): a methodology based on a way of syst ...
,
Barbara Grosz,
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...
,
Robert L. Flood,
Allenna Leonard,
Radhika Nagpal
Radhika Nagpal is an American computer scientist and researcher in the fields of self-organising computer systems, biologically-inspired robotics, and biological multi-agent systems. She is the Fred Kavli Professor of Computer Science at Harvar ...
,
Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra (born February 1, 1939) is an Austrian-born American physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist. In 1995, he became a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He is on the faculty of Schumacher ...
,
Warren McCulloch
Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.Ken Aizawa ...
,
Kathleen Carley
Kathleen M. Carley is an American social scientist specializing in dynamic network analysis. She is a professor in the School of Computer Science in the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University and also holds appointments in ...
,
Michael C. Jackson,
Katia Sycara
Ekaterini Panagiotou Sycara ( el, Κάτια Συκαρά) is a Greek computer scientist. She is an Edward Fredkin Research Professor of Robotics in the Robotics Institute, School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University internationally ...
, and
Edgar Morin
Edgar Morin (; ; born Edgar Nahoum; 8 July 1921) is a French philosopher and sociologist of the theory of information who has been recognized for his work on complexity and "complex thought" ( pensée complexe), and for his scholarly contributio ...
among others.
With the modern foundations for a general theory of systems following World War I,
Ervin László
Ervin László (; born 12 June 1932) is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist, originally a classical pianist. He is an advocate of the theory of quantum consciousness.
Early life and education
László wa ...
, in the preface for Bertalanffy's book, ''Perspectives on General System Theory'', points out that the
translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
of "general system theory" from German into English has "wrought a certain amount of havoc":
Theorie (or ''Lehre'') "has a much broader meaning in German than the closest English words 'theory' and 'science'," just as ''
Wissenschaft'' (or 'Science').
These ideas refer to an organized body of knowledge and "any systematically presented set of concepts, whether
empirically
In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empiri ...
,
axiomatically
An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...
, or
philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Som ...
ly" represented, while many associate ''Lehre'' with theory and science in the etymology of general systems, though it also does not translate from the German very well; its "closest equivalent" translates to 'teaching', but "sounds dogmatic and off the mark."
An adequate overlap in meaning is found within the word "
nomothetic
Nomothetic literally means "proposition of the law" (Greek derivation) and is used in philosophy, psychology, and law with differing meanings.
Etymology
In general humanities usage, ''nomothetic'' may be used in the sense of "able to lay down ...
", which can mean "having the capability to posit long-lasting sense." While the idea of a "general systems theory" might have lost many of its root meanings in the translation, by defining a new way of thinking about science and
scientific paradigms, systems theory became a widespread term used for instance to describe the interdependence of relationships created in
organization
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived fro ...
s.
A system in this frame of reference can contain regularly interacting or interrelating groups of activities. For example, in noting the influence in the evolution of "an individually oriented
industrial psychology ntoa systems and developmentally oriented
organizational psychology
Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology), an applied discipline within psychology, is the science of human behavior in the workplace. Depending on the country or region of the world, I-O psychology is also known as occupational ...
," some theorists recognize that organizations have complex social systems; separating the parts from the whole reduces the overall effectiveness of organizations.
This difference, from conventional models that center on individuals, structures, departments and units, separates in part from the whole, instead of recognizing the interdependence between groups of individuals, structures and processes that enable an organization to function.
László explains that the new systems view of organized complexity went "one step beyond the Newtonian view of organized simplicity" which reduced the parts from the whole, or understood the whole without relation to the parts. The relationship between organisations and their
environments
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
can be seen as the foremost source of complexity and interdependence. In most cases, the whole has properties that cannot be known from analysis of the constituent elements in isolation.
Béla H. Bánáthy, who argued—along with the founders of the systems society—that "the benefit of humankind" is the purpose of science, has made significant and far-reaching contributions to the area of systems theory. For the Primer Group at the
International Society for the System Sciences, Bánáthy defines a perspective that iterates this view:
Examples of applications
In art
In biology
Systems biology is a movement that draws on several trends in
bioscience
''BioScience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. It was established in 1964 and was preceded by the ''AIBS Bulletin'' (1951–19 ...
research. Proponents describe systems biology as a biology-based interdisciplinary study field that focuses on complex interactions in
biological system
A biological system is a complex network which connects several biologically relevant entities. Biological organization spans several scales and are determined based different structures depending on what the system is. Examples of biological sys ...
s, claiming that it uses a new perspective (
holism
Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED ...
instead of
reduction).
Particularly from the year 2000 onwards, the biosciences use the term widely and in a variety of contexts. An often stated ambition of systems biology is the modelling and discovery of
emergent properties
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
Emergen ...
which represents properties of a system whose theoretical description requires the only possible useful techniques to fall under the remit of systems biology. It is thought that
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, ap ...
may have created the term ''systems biology'' in 1928.
[1928, Kritische Theorie der Formbildung, Borntraeger. In English: Modern Theories of Development: An Introduction to Theoretical Biology, Oxford University Press, New York: Harper, 1933]
Subdisciplines of systems biology include:
*
Systems neuroscience
Systems neuroscience is a subdiscipline of neuroscience and systems biology that studies the structure and function of neural circuits and systems. Systems neuroscience encompasses a number of areas of study concerned with how nerve cells behave ...
*
Systems pharmacology
Ecology
Systems ecology is an
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
field of
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
that takes a
holistic
Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED O ...
approach to the study of
ecological systems
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
, especially
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
s; it can be seen as an application of general systems theory to ecology.
Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem is a
complex system
A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communicatio ...
exhibiting
emergent properties
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
Emergen ...
. Systems ecology focuses on interactions and transactions within and between biological and ecological systems, and is especially concerned with the way the functioning of ecosystems can be influenced by human interventions. It uses and extends concepts from
thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws o ...
and develops other macroscopic descriptions of complex systems.
In chemistry
Systems chemistry is the science of studying
networks
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
of interacting molecules, to create new functions from a set (or library) of molecules with different hierarchical levels and emergent properties. Systems chemistry is also related to the origin of life (
abiogenesis
In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothe ...
).
In engineering
Systems engineering is an
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
approach and means for enabling the realisation and deployment of successful
systems. It can be viewed as the application of engineering techniques to the engineering of systems, as well as the application of a systems approach to engineering efforts. Systems engineering integrates other disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort, forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation and disposal. Systems engineering considers both the business and the technical needs of all customers, with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user's needs.
User-centered design process
Systems thinking is a crucial part of
user-centered design
User-centered design (UCD) or user-driven development (UDD) is a framework of process (not restricted to interfaces or technologies) in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or proc ...
processes and is necessary to understand the whole impact of a new
human computer interaction
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...
(HCI)
Information System
An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems are composed by four components: task, people ...
. Overlooking this and developing software without insights input from the future users (mediated by user experience designers) is a serious design flaw that can lead to complete failure of information systems, increased stress and mental illness for users of information systems leading to increased costs and a huge waste of resources. It is currently surprisingly uncommon for organizations and governments to investigate the project management decisions leading to serious design flaws and lack of usability.
The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
estimates that roughly 15% of the estimated $1 trillion used to develop information systems every year is completely wasted and the produced systems are discarded before implementation by entirely preventable mistakes. According to the CHAOS report published in 2018 by the
Standish Group, a vast majority of information systems fail or partly fail according to their survey:
In mathematics
System dynamics is an approach to understanding the
nonlinear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...
behaviour of
complex system
A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communicatio ...
s over time using
stocks, flows, internal
feedback loop
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
s, and time delays.
[MIT System Dynamics in Education Project (SDEP)](_blank)
/ref>
In social sciences and humanities
* Systems theory in anthropology
* Systems theory in archaeology
Systems theory in archaeology is the application of systems theory and systems thinking in archaeology. It originated with the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy in the 1950s, and is introduced in archaeology in the 1960s with the work of Sally R. Bin ...
* Systems theory in political science
Systems theory in political science is a highly abstract, partly holistic view of politics, influenced by cybernetics. The adaptation of system theory to political science was conceived by David Easton in 1953.
Overview
In simple terms, Easton's ...
Psychology
Systems psychology is a branch of psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
that studies human behaviour
Human behavior is the potential and expressed capacity ( mentally, physically, and socially) of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life. Kagan, Jerome, Marc H. Bornstein, and Richard ...
and experience
Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience invol ...
in complex system
A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communicatio ...
s.
It received inspiration from systems theory and systems thinking, as well as the basics of theoretical work from Roger Barker
Roger Garlock Barker (1903 – 1990) was a social scientist, a founder of environmental psychology and a leading figure in the field for decades, perhaps best known for his development of the concept of behavior settings and staffing theory. He ...
, Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to a ...
, Humberto Maturana
Humberto Maturana Romesín (September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher. Many consider him a member of a group of second-order cybernetics theoreticians such as Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Herbert Br� ...
and others. It makes an approach in psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
in which groups and individuals receive consideration as systems in homeostasis
In biology, homeostasis (British English, British also homoeostasis) Help:IPA/English, (/hɒmɪə(ʊ)ˈsteɪsɪs/) is the state of steady internal, physics, physical, and chemistry, chemical conditions maintained by organism, living systems. Thi ...
. Systems psychology "includes the domain of engineering psychology
Engineering psychology, also known as Human Factors Engineering, is the science of human behavior and capability, applied to the design and operation of systems and technology.
As an applied field of psychology and an interdisciplinary part of ergo ...
, but in addition seems more concerned with societal systems and with the study of motivational, affective, cognitive and group behavior that holds the name engineering psychology."
In systems psychology, characteristics of organizational behaviour
Organizational behavior (OB) or organisational behaviour is the: "study of human behavior in organizational settings, the interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself".Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. (199 ...
(such as individual needs, rewards, expectation
Expectation or Expectations may refer to:
Science
* Expectation (epistemic)
* Expected value, in mathematical probability theory
* Expectation value (quantum mechanics)
* Expectation–maximization algorithm, in statistics
Music
* ''Expectation' ...
s, and attributes of the people interacting with the systems) "considers this process in order to create an effective system."
In Informatics
System theory has been applied in the field of neuroinformatics and connectionist cognitive science. Attempts are being made in neurocognition to merge connectionist cognitive neuroarchitectures with the approach of system theory and dynamical systems theory
Dynamical systems theory is an area of mathematics used to describe the behavior of complex systems, complex dynamical systems, usually by employing differential equations or difference equations. When differential equations are employed, the theo ...
.
History
Precursors
Systems thinking can date back to antiquity, whether considering the first systems of written communication with Sumerian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...
to Mayan numerals
The Mayan numeral system was the system to represent numbers and calendar dates in the Maya civilization. It was a vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system. The numerals are made up of three symbols; zero (a shell), one (a dot) and ...
, or the feats of engineering with the Egyptian pyramids
The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. ...
. Differentiated from Western rationalist traditions of philosophy, C. West Churchman often identified with the I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zh ...
as a systems approach sharing a frame of reference similar to pre-Socratic
Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of thes ...
philosophy and Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. I ...
. Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, ap ...
traced systems concepts to the philosophy of G.W. Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
and Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Ren ...
's '' coincidentia oppositorum''. While modern systems can seem considerably more complicated, they may embed themselves in history.
Figures like James Joule
James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 11 October 1889) was an English physicist, mathematician and brewer, born in Salford, Lancashire. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work (see energy). Th ...
and Sadi Carnot represent an important step to introduce the ''systems approach'' into the (rationalist) hard sciences of the 19th century, also known as the energy transformation
Energy transformation, also known as energy conversion, is the process of changing energy from one form to another. In physics, energy is a quantity that provides the capacity to perform Work (physics), work or moving, (e.g. Lifting an object) o ...
. Then, the thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws o ...
of this century, by Rudolf Clausius
Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (; 2 January 1822 – 24 August 1888) was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle ...
, Josiah Gibbs and others, established the ''system'' reference model as a formal scientific object.
Similar ideas are found in learning theories that developed from the same fundamental concepts, emphasising how understanding results from knowing concepts both in part and as a whole. In fact, Bertalanffy's organismic psychology paralleled the learning theory of Jean Piaget
Jean William Fritz Piaget (, , ; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology ...
.[ von Bertalanffy, Ludwig. ]968
Year 968 ( CMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* Emperor Nikephoros II receives a Bulgarian embassy led by Prince Boris (the ...
1976. ''General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications'' (rev. ed.). New York: George Braziller. Some consider interdisciplinary perspectives critical in breaking away from industrial age models and thinking, wherein history represents history and math represents math, while the arts and sciences specialization
Specialization or Specialized may refer to:
Academia
* Academic specialization, may be a course of study or major at an academic institution or may refer to the field in which a specialist practices
* Specialty (medicine), a branch of medical ...
remain separate and many treat teaching as behaviorist
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual' ...
conditioning.
The contemporary work of Peter Senge
Peter Michael Senge (born 1947) is an American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learnin ...
provides detailed discussion of the commonplace critique of educational systems grounded in conventional assumptions about learning, including the problems with fragmented knowledge and lack of holistic learning from the "machine-age thinking" that became a "model of school separated from daily life." In this way, some systems theorists attempt to provide alternatives to, and evolved ideation from orthodox theories which have grounds in classical assumptions, including individuals such as Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist and political economy, political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of Modernity, ...
and Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...
in sociology and Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up h ...
in scientific management
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engine ...
. The theorists sought holistic methods by developing systems concepts that could integrate with different areas.
Some may view the contradiction of reductionism
Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical pos ...
in conventional theory (which has as its subject a single part) as simply an example of changing assumptions. The emphasis with systems theory shifts from parts to the organization of parts, recognizing interactions of the parts as not static and constant but dynamic processes. Some questioned the conventional closed system
A closed system is a natural physical system that does not allow transfer of matter in or out of the system, although — in contexts such as physics, chemistry or engineering — the transfer of energy (''e.g.'' as work or heat) is allowed.
In ...
s with the development of open systems perspectives. The shift originated from absolute Absolute may refer to:
Companies
* Absolute Entertainment, a video game publisher
* Absolute Radio, (formerly Virgin Radio), independent national radio station in the UK
* Absolute Software Corporation, specializes in security and data risk manag ...
and universal authoritative principles and knowledge to relative and general concept
Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs.
They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by s ...
ual and perceptual
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, ...
knowledge and still remains in the tradition of theorists that sought to provide means to organize human life. In other words, theorists rethought the preceding history of ideas
Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histo ...
; they did not lose them. Mechanistic thinking was particularly critiqued, especially the industrial-age mechanistic metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
for the mind from interpretation
Interpretation may refer to:
Culture
* Aesthetic interpretation, an explanation of the meaning of a work of art
* Allegorical interpretation, an approach that assumes a text should not be interpreted literally
* Dramatic Interpretation, an event ...
s of Newtonian mechanics
Newton's laws of motion are three basic Scientific law, laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows:
# A body remains at re ...
by Enlightenment philosophers and later psychologists that laid the foundations of modern organizational theory and management by the late 19th century.
Founding and early development
Where assumptions in Western science from Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...
and Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...
to Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the g ...
's '' Principia'' (1687) have historically influenced all areas from the hard to social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
sciences (see, David Easton's seminal development of the "political system
In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state.
It defines the process for making official government decisions. It usually comprizes the govern ...
" as an analytical construct), the original systems theorists explored the implications of 20th-century advances in terms of systems.
Between 1929 and 1951, Robert Maynard Hutchins
Robert Maynard Hutchins (January 17, 1899 – May 14, 1977) was an American educational philosopher. He was president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago, and earlier dean of Yale Law School (1927–1929). His& ...
at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
had undertaken efforts to encourage innovation and interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, aided by the Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the dea ...
with the university's interdisciplinary Division of the Social Sciences established in 1931.
Many early systems theorists aimed at finding a general systems theory that could explain all systems in all fields of science.
"General systems theory
Systems theory is the Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or man-made, human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its c ...
" (GST; German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
: ''allgemeine Systemlehre'') was coined in the 1940s by Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, ap ...
, who sought a new approach to the study of living systems
Living systems are open self-organizing life forms that interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy and matter.
In the last few decades, some scientists have proposed that a general living system ...
. Bertalanffy developed the theory via lectures beginning in 1937 and then via publications beginning in 1946.[ von Bertalanffy, Karl Ludwig. 9671970. ''Robots, Men and Minds: Psychology in the Modern World'' (1st ed.), translated by H-J. Flechtner. Düsseldorf: Econ Verlag GmbH. p. 115.] According to Mike C. Jackson (2000), Bertalanffy promoted an embryonic form of GST as early as the 1920s and 1930s, but it was not until the early 1950s that it became more widely known in scientific circles.[ Mike C. Jackson. 2000. ''Systems Approaches to Management''. London: Springer.]
Jackson also claimed that Bertalanffy's work was informed by Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Богда́нов; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and ...
's three-volume ''Tectology
Tektology (sometimes transliterated as tectology) is a term used by Alexander Bogdanov to describe a new universal science that consisted of unifying all social, biological and physical sciences by considering them as systems of relationships and ...
'' (1912-1917), providing the conceptual base for GST. A similar position is held by Richard Mattessich (1978) and Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra (born February 1, 1939) is an Austrian-born American physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist. In 1995, he became a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He is on the faculty of Schumacher ...
(1996). Despite this, Bertalanffy never even mentioned Bogdanov in his works.
The systems view was based on several fundamental ideas. First, all phenomena can be viewed as a web of relationships among elements, or a system. Second, all systems, whether electrical
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
, biological
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...
, or social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
, have common patterns
A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...
, behaviors
Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as we ...
, and properties
Property is the ownership of land, resources, improvements or other tangible objects, or intellectual property.
Property may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Property (mathematics)
Philosophy and science
* Property (philosophy), in philosophy an ...
that the observer can analyze and use to develop greater insight into the behavior of complex phenomena and to move closer toward a unity of the sciences. System philosophy, methodology and application are complementary to this science.
Cognizant of advances in science that questioned classical assumptions in the organizational sciences, Bertalanffy's idea to develop a theory of systems began as early as the interwar period, publishing "An Outline for General Systems Theory" in the ''British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
''British Journal for the Philosophy of Science'' (''BJPS'') is a peer-reviewed, academic journal of philosophy, owned by the British Society for the Philosophy of Science (BSPS) and published by University of Chicago Press. The journal publishes ...
'' by 1950.
In 1954, von Bertalanffy, along with Anatol Rapoport
Anatol Rapoport ( uk, Анатолій Борисович Рапопо́рт; russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Рапопо́рт; May 22, 1911January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to genera ...
, Ralph W. Gerard, and Kenneth Boulding
Kenneth Ewart Boulding (; January 18, 1910 – March 18, 1993) was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher.David LatzkoKenneth E. Boulding Commentsat personal.psu.edu. Accessed 24 April 200 ...
, came together at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social an ...
in Palo Alto to discuss the creation of a "society for the advancement of General Systems Theory." In December that year, a meeting of around 70 people was held in Berkeley to form a society for the exploration and development of GST. The Society for General Systems Research
The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is:
:"to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their ...
(renamed the International Society for Systems Science in 1988) was established in 1956 thereafter as an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...
(AAAS), specifically catalyzing systems theory as an area of study. The field developed from the work of Bertalanffy, Rapoport, Gerard, and Boulding, as well as other theorists in the 1950s like William Ross Ashby
W. Ross Ashby (6 September 1903 – 15 November 1972) was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. His first name was not ...
, Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...
, Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to a ...
, and C. West Churchman, among others.
Bertalanffy's ideas were adopted by others, working in mathematics, psychology, biology, game theory, and social network analysis
Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of ''nodes'' (individual actors, people, or things within the network) ...
. Subjects that were studied included those of complexity
Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence.
The term is generally used to c ...
, self-organization
Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spontaneous when suffic ...
, connectionism
Connectionism refers to both an approach in the field of cognitive science that hopes to explain mind, mental phenomena using artificial neural networks (ANN) and to a wide range of techniques and algorithms using ANNs in the context of artificial ...
and adaptive systems. In fields like cybernetics, researchers such as Ashby, Norbert Wiener
Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher ...
, John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
, and Heinz von Foerster
Heinz von Foerster (German spelling: Heinz von Förster; November 13, 1911 – October 2, 2002) was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy, and widely attributed as the originator of Second-order cybernetics. He was twic ...
examined complex systems mathematically; Von Neumann discovered cellular automata and self-reproducing systems, again with only pencil and paper. Aleksandr Lyapunov and Jules Henri Poincaré worked on the foundations of chaos theory without any computer at all. At the same time, Howard T. Odum, known as a radiation ecologist, recognized that the study of general systems required a language that could depict energy, energetics, thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws o ...
and Kinetics (physics), kinetics at any system scale. To fulfill this role, Odum developed a general system, or universal language, based on the circuit language of electronics, known as the Energy Systems Language.
The Cold War affected the research project for systems theory in ways that sorely disappointed many of the seminal theorists. Some began to recognize that theories defined in association with systems theory had deviated from the initial general systems theory view. Economist Kenneth Boulding, an early researcher in systems theory, had concerns over the manipulation of systems concepts. Boulding concluded from the effects of the Cold War that abuses of Political power, power always prove consequential and that systems theory might address such issues. Since the end of the Cold War, a renewed interest in systems theory emerged, combined with efforts to strengthen an ethical view on the subject.
In sociology, systems thinking also began in the 20th century, including Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in socio ...
' Action theory (sociology), action theory[Rudolf Stichweh (2011)]
Systems Theory
, in:y. and Niklas Luhmann's Social system#Niklas Luhmann, social systems theory. According to Rudolf Stichweh (2011):Since its beginnings the social sciences were an important part of the establishment of systems theory... [T]he two most influential suggestions were the comprehensive sociological versions of systems theory which were proposed by Talcott Parsons since the 1950s and by Niklas Luhmann since the 1970s.
Elements of systems thinking can also be seen in the work of James Clerk Maxwell, particularly control theory.
General systems research and systems inquiry
Many early systems theorists aimed at finding a general systems theory that could explain all systems in all fields of science. Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (19 September 1901 – 12 June 1972) was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory (GST). This is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, ap ...
began developing his 'general systems theory' via lectures in 1937 and then via publications from 1946. The concept received extensive focus in his 1968 book, ''General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications''.
There are many definitions of a general system, some properties that definitions include are: an overall Teleology, goal of the system, Mereology, parts of the system and relationships between these parts, and emergent properties
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
Emergen ...
of the interaction between the parts of the system that are not performed by any part on its own. Derek Hitchins defines a system in terms of Entropy (information theory), entropy as a collection of parts and relationships between the parts where the parts of their interrelationships decrease entropy.
Bertalanffy aimed to bring together under one heading the organismic science that he had observed in his work as a biologist. He wanted to use the word ''system'' for those principles that are common to systems in general. In ''General System Theory'' (1968), he wrote:
In the preface to von Bertalanffy's ''Perspectives on General System Theory'', Ervin László
Ervin László (; born 12 June 1932) is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist, originally a classical pianist. He is an advocate of the theory of quantum consciousness.
Early life and education
László wa ...
stated:[Ervin László, László, Ervin. 1974. "Preface" in ''Perspectives on General System Theory'', by L. von Bertalanffy, edited by Edgar Taschdjian. New York: George Braziller.]
Bertalanffy outlines systems inquiry into three major domains: philosophy, science, and technology. In his work with the Primer Group, Béla H. Bánáthy generalized the domains into four integratable domains of systemic inquiry:
# philosophy: the ontology
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.
Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities ...
, epistemology, and axiology of systems
# theory: a set of interrelated concepts and principles applying to all systems
# methodology: the set of models, strategies, methods and tools that instrumentalize systems theory and philosophy
# application: the application and interaction of the domains
These operate in a recursive relationship, he explained; integrating 'philosophy' and 'theory' as knowledge, and 'method' and 'application' as action; systems inquiry is thus knowledgeable action.
Properties of general systems
General systems may be split into a hierarchy of systems, where there is less interactions between the different systems than there is the components in the system. The alternative is heterarchy where all components within the system interact with one another. Sometimes an entire system will be represented inside another system as a part, sometimes referred to as a holon. These hierarchies of system are studied in hierarchy theory. The amount of interaction between parts of systems higher in the hierarchy and parts of the system lower in the hierarchy is reduced. If all the parts of a system are tightly Coupling, coupled (interact with one another a lot) then the system cannot be decomposed into different systems. The amount of coupling between parts of a system may differ temporally, with some parts interacting more often than other, or for different processes in a system. Herbert A. Simon distinguished between decomposable, nearly decomposable and nondecomposable systems.
Russell L. Ackoff distinguished general systems by how their goals and subgoals could change over time. He distinguished between goal-maintaining, Goal seeking, goal-seeking, multi-goal and reflective (or goal-changing) systems.
System types and fields
Theoretical fields
* Chaos theory
* Complex system
* Control theory
* Dynamical systems theory
* Earth system science
* Ecological systems theory
* Living systems theory[Sinnott, J. D., and J. S. Rabin. 2012. "Sex Roles." Pp. 411-17 in ''Encyclopedia of Human Behavior'' (2nd ed.). Elsevier.]
* Sociotechnical system
* Systemics
* Urban metabolism
* World-systems theory
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the study of the communication and control of regulatory feedback both in living and lifeless systems (organisms, organizations, machines), and in combinations of those. Its focus is how anything (digital, mechanical or biological) controls its behavior, processes information, reacts to information, and changes or can be changed to better accomplish those three primary tasks.
The terms ''systems theory'' and ''cybernetics'' have been widely used as synonyms. Some authors use the term ''cybernetic'' systems to denote a proper subset of the class of general systems, namely those systems that include feedback loops. However, Gordon Pask's differences of eternal interacting actor loops (that produce finite products) makes general systems a proper subset of cybernetics. In cybernetics, complex systems have been examined mathematically by such researchers as W. Ross Ashby, Norbert Wiener
Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher ...
, John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
, and Heinz von Foerster
Heinz von Foerster (German spelling: Heinz von Förster; November 13, 1911 – October 2, 2002) was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy, and widely attributed as the originator of Second-order cybernetics. He was twic ...
.
Threads of cybernetics began in the late 1800s that led toward the publishing of seminal works (such as Wiener's ''Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Cybernetics'' in 1948 and Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Bertalanffy's ''General Systems Theory'' in 1968). Cybernetics arose more from engineering fields and GST from biology. If anything, it appears that although the two probably mutually influenced each other, cybernetics had the greater influence. Bertalanffy specifically made the point of distinguishing between the areas in noting the influence of cybernetics:Systems theory is frequently identified with cybernetics and control theory. This again is incorrect. Cybernetics as the theory of control mechanisms in technology and nature is founded on the concepts of information and feedback, but as part of a general theory of systems.... [T]he model is of wide application but should not be identified with 'systems theory' in general ... [and] warning is necessary against its incautious expansion to fields for which its concepts are not made.
Cybernetics, catastrophe theory, chaos theory and Complex systems#Complexity and chaos theory, complexity theory have the common goal to explain complex systems that consist of a large number of mutually interacting and interrelated parts in terms of those interactions. Cellular automaton, Cellular automata, neural networks, artificial intelligence, and artificial life are related fields, but do not try to describe general (universal) complex (singular) systems. The best context to compare the different "C"-Theories about complex systems is historical, which emphasizes different tools and methodologies, from pure mathematics in the beginning to pure computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...
today. Since the beginning of chaos theory, when Edward Lorenz accidentally discovered a strange attractor with his computer, computers have become an indispensable source of information. One could not imagine the study of complex systems without the use of computers today.
System types
* Biological system, Biological
** Anatomy, Anatomical systems
*** Nervous system, Nervous
**** Sensory system, Sensory
** Social ecological model#Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework for human development, Ecological systems
** Living systems
* Complex system, Complex
** Complex adaptive system
* Conceptual system, Conceptual
** Coordinate system, Coordinate
** Deterministic system (philosophy), Deterministic (philosophy)
** Digital ecosystem
** Experimental system, Experimental
** Writing system, Writing
* Coupled human–environment system, Coupled human–environment
* Database system, Database
* Deterministic system, Deterministic (science)
* Mathematical system theory, Mathematical
** Dynamical system
** Formal system
* Economic system, Economic
* Energy system, Energy
* Holarchical System, Holarchical
* Information system, Information
* List of national legal systems, Legal
* System of measurement, Measurement
** Imperial System, Imperial
** Metric system, Metric
* Multi-agent system, Multi-agent
* Nonlinear system, Nonlinear
* Operating system, Operating
* Planetary system, Planetary
* Political system, Political
* Social system, Social
* Star system, Star
Complex adaptive systems
Complex adaptive systems (CAS), coined by John Henry Holland, John H. Holland, Murray Gell-Mann, and others at the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute, are special cases of complex system
A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communicatio ...
s: they are ''complex'' in that they are diverse and composed of multiple, interconnected elements; they are ''adaptive'' in that they have the capacity to change and learn from experience.
In contrast to control systems, in which negative feedback dampens and reverses disequilibria, CAS are often subject to positive feedback, which magnifies and perpetuates changes, converting local irregularities into global features.
See also
Organizations
* List of systems sciences organizations
References
Further reading
* W. Ross Ashby, Ashby, W. Ross. 1956. ''An Introduction to Cybernetics.'' Chapman & Hall.
* —— 1960. ''Design for a Brain: The Origin of Adaptive Behavior'' (2nd ed.)''.'' Chapman & Hall.
* Gregory Bateson, Bateson, Gregory. 1972. ''Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology.'' University of Chicago Press.
* von Bertalanffy, Ludwig. 1968. ''General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications'' New York: George Braziller
* Arthur Burks, Burks, Arthur. 1970. ''Essays on Cellular Automata.'' University of Illinois Press.
* Colin Cherry, Cherry, Colin. 1957. ''On Human Communication: A Review, a Survey, and a Criticism''. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
* C. West Churchman, Churchman, C. West. 1971. ''The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organizations''. New York: Basic Books.
* Peter Checkland, Checkland, Peter. 1999. ''Systems Thinking, Systems Practice: Includes a 30-Year Retrospective.'' Wiley.
* James Gleick, Gleick, James. 1997. ''Chaos: Making a New Science'', Random House.
* Hermann Haken, Haken, Hermann. 1983. ''Synergetics: An Introduction - 3rd Edition'', Springer.
* John H. Holland, Holland, John H. 1992. ''Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems: An Introductory Analysis with Applications to Biology, Control, and Artificial Intelligence''. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
* Niklas Luhmann, Luhmann, Niklas. 2013. ''Introduction to Systems Theory'', Polity.
* Joanna Macy, Macy, Joanna. 1991. ''Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems''. SUNY Press.
* Humberto Maturana, Maturana, Humberto, and Francisco Varela
Francisco Javier Varela García (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001) was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist who, together with his mentor Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopo ...
. 1980. ''Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living''. Springer Science & Business Media.
* James Grier Miller, Miller, James Grier. 1978. ''Living Systems''. Mcgraw-Hill.
* John von Neumann, von Neumann, John. 1951 "The General and Logical Theory of Automata." Pp. 1–41 in ''Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior''.
* —— 1956. "Probabilistic Logics and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components." ''Automata Studies'' 34:43–98.
* von Neumann, John, and Arthur Burks, eds. 1966. ''Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata''. Illinois University Press.
* Talcott Parsons, Parsons, Talcott. 1951. ''The Social System''. The Free Press.
* Ilya Prigogine, Prigogine, Ilya. 1980. ''From Being to Becoming: Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences.'' W H Freeman & Co.
* Herbert A. Simon, Simon, Herbert A. 1962. "The Architecture of Complexity." ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 106.
* —— 1996. ''The Sciences of the Artificial'' (3rd ed.), vol. 136. The MIT Press.
* Claude Shannon, Shannon, Claude, and Warren Weaver. 1949. ''The Mathematical Theory of Communication''. .
** Adapted from Shannon, Claude. 1948.
A Mathematical Theory of Communication
" ''Bell System Technical Journal'' 27(3):379–423. .
* René Thom, Thom, René. 1972. ''Structural Stability and Morphogenesis: An Outline of a General Theory of Models''. Reading, Massachusetts.
* Weaver, Warren. 1948. "Science and Complexity." ''The American Scientist'', 536–44.
* Norbert Wiener, Wiener, Norbert. 1965. ''Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine'' (2nd ed.). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
* Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram, Stephen. 2002. ''A New Kind of Science''. Wolfram Media.
* Lofti Zadeh, Zadeh, Lofti. 1962. "From Circuit Theory to System Theory." ''Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, Proceedings of the IRE'' 50(5):856–65.
External links
Systems Thinking
at Wikiversity
at Principia Cybernetica Web
Introduction to systems thinking
- 55 slides
Organizations
International Society for the System Sciences
New England Complex Systems Institute
System Dynamics Society
{{Authority control
Systems theory,
Emergence
Interdisciplinary subfields of sociology
Complex systems theory
Systems science