A system is a group of
interacting
Interaction is action that occurs between two or more objects, with broad use in philosophy and the sciences. It may refer to:
Science
* Interaction hypothesis, a theory of second language acquisition
* Interaction (statistics)
* Interactions o ...
or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole.
A system, surrounded and influenced by its
environment
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 ...
, is described by its boundaries,
structure
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...
and purpose and expressed in its functioning. Systems are the subjects of study of
systems theory
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
and other
systems sciences.
Systems have several common properties and characteristics, including structure, function(s), behavior and interconnectivity.
Etymology
The term ''system'' comes from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word ''systēma'', in turn from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''systēma'': "whole concept made of several parts or members, system", literary "composition".
["σύστημα"](_blank)
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon
''A Greek–English Lexicon'', often referred to as ''Liddell & Scott'' () or ''Liddell–Scott–Jones'' (''LSJ''), is a standard lexicographical work of the Ancient Greek language originally edited by Henry George Liddell
Henry George L ...
'', on Perseus Digits Library.
History
According to
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...
,
"System" means "something to look at". You must have a very high visual gradient to have systematization. But in philosophy, prior to Descartes, there was no "system". Plato had no "system". Aristotle had no "system".[Marshall McLuhan in: McLuhan: Hot & Cool. Ed. by Gerald Emanuel Stearn. A Signet Book published by The New American Library, New York, 1967, p. 288.]
In the 19th century the French physicist
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot
''Sous-lieutenant'' Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (; 1 June 1796 – 24 August 1832) was a French mechanical engineer in the French Army, military scientist and physicist, and often described as the "father of thermodynamics". He published onl ...
, who studied
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 of the ...
, pioneered the development of the concept of a ''system'' in the
natural science
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
s. In 1824 he studied the system which he called the ''working substance'' (typically a body of water vapor) in
steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
s, in regards to the system's ability to do work when heat is applied to it. The working substance could be put in contact with either a boiler, a cold reservoir (a stream of cold water), or a piston (on which the working body could do work by pushing on it). In 1850, the German physicist
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 ...
generalized this picture to include the concept of the
surroundings
Surroundings are the area around a given physical or geographical point or place. The exact definition depends on the field. Surroundings can also be used in geography (when it is more precisely known as vicinity, or vicinage) and mathematics, a ...
and began to use the term ''working body'' when referring to the system.
The 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, appl ...
became one of the pioneers of the
general systems theory
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
. In 1945 he introduced ''models, principles, and laws that apply to generalized systems or their subclasses, irrespective of their particular kind, the nature of their component elements, and the relation or 'forces' between them.''
[1945, ''Zu einer allgemeinen Systemlehre,'' Blätter für deutsche Philosophie, 3/4. (Extract in: Biologia Generalis, 19 (1949), 139–164.]
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 i ...
and
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 no ...
, who pioneered the use of mathematics to study systems, carried out significant development in the concept of a ''system''.
[
1948, ''Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine.'' Paris, France: Librairie Hermann & Cie, and Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.][1956. ]
An Introduction to Cybernetics
', Chapman & Hall.
In the 1980s
John Henry Holland
John Henry Holland (February 2, 1929 – August 9, 2015) was an American scientist and Professor of psychology and Professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a pioneer in what became ...
,
Murray Gell-Mann
Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. He was the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Theoretical ...
and others coined the term ''
complex adaptive system
A complex adaptive system is a system that is ''complex'' in that it is a dynamic network of interactions, but the behavior of the ensemble may not be predictable according to the behavior of the components. It is ''adaptive'' in that the individ ...
'' at the interdisciplinary
Santa Fe Institute
The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, includ ...
.
Concepts
;Environment and boundaries
:
Systems theory
Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...
views the world as a complex system of interconnected parts. One scopes a system by defining its
boundary
Boundary or Boundaries may refer to:
* Border, in political geography
Entertainment
*Boundaries (2016 film), ''Boundaries'' (2016 film), a 2016 Canadian film
*Boundaries (2018 film), ''Boundaries'' (2018 film), a 2018 American-Canadian road trip ...
; this means choosing which entities are inside the system and which are outside—part of the
environment
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 ...
. One can make simplified representations (
models
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure.
Models c ...
) of the system in order to understand it and to predict or impact its future behavior. These models may define the structure and behavior of the system.
;Natural and human-made systems
:There are natural and human-made (designed) systems. Natural systems may not have an apparent objective but their behavior can be interpreted as purposeful by an observer. Human-made systems are made with various purposes that are achieved by some action performed by or with the system. The parts of a system must be related; they must be "designed to work as a coherent entity" — otherwise they would be two or more distinct systems.
;Theoretical framework
:Most systems are
open systems, exchanging matter and energy with their respective surroundings; like a car, a
coffeemaker
A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew coffee. While there are many different types of coffeemakers the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee gr ...
, or
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
. A
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 ...
exchanges energy, but not matter, with its environment; like a computer or the project
Biosphere 2
Biosphere 2 is an American Earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the univers ...
. An
isolated system
In physical science, an isolated system is either of the following:
# a physical system so far removed from other systems that it does not interact with them.
# a thermodynamic system enclosed by rigid immovable walls through which neither m ...
exchanges neither matter nor energy with its environment. A theoretical example of such system is the
Universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
.
;Process and transformation process
:An
open system can also be viewed as a bounded transformation process, that is, a
black box
In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...
that is a process or collection of processes that transform inputs into outputs. Inputs are consumed; outputs are produced. The concept of input and output here is very broad. For example, an output of a passenger ship is the movement of people from departure to destination.
;System model
:A system comprises
multiple views. Man-made systems may have such views as concept,
analysis
Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...
,
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
,
implementation
Implementation is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy.
Industry-specific definitions
Computer science
In computer science, an implementation is a realiza ...
, deployment, structure, behavior, input data, and output data views. A
system model is required to describe and represent all these views.
;Systems architecture
:A
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 ...
, using one single integrated model for the description of multiple views, is a kind of system model.
Subsystem
A subsystem is a set of elements, which is a system itself, and a component of a larger system. The IBM Mainframe ''Job Entry Subsystem'' family (
JES1 Job Entry Subsystem (JES), aka Job Entry Subsystem 1 (JES1), was released by IBM as an integral part of OS/VS1 as an enhancement to the basic functions that users of VS1's predecessor, MFT, had.
History
IBM proclaimed JES1 to be "the single most i ...
,
JES2,
JES3
The Job Entry Subsystem (JES) is a component of IBM's MVS mainframe operating systems that is responsible for managing batch workloads. In modern times, there are two distinct implementations of the Job Entry System called JES2 and JES3. They a ...
, and their
HASP/
ASP predecessors) are examples. The main ''elements'' they have in common are the components that handle input, scheduling, spooling and output; they also have the ability to interact with local and remote operators.
A subsystem description is a system object that contains information defining the characteristics of an operating environment controlled by the system. The Data tests are performed to verify the correctness of the individual subsystem configuration data (e.g. MA Length, Static Speed Profile, …) and they are related to a single subsystem in order to test its Specific Application (SA).
Analysis
There are many kinds of systems that can be analyzed both
quantitatively
Quantitative research is a research strategy that focuses on quantifying the collection and analysis of data. It is formed from a deductive approach where emphasis is placed on the testing of theory, shaped by empiricist and positivist philosop ...
and
qualitatively. For example, in an analysis of urban
systems dynamics
System dynamics (SD) is an approach to understanding the nonlinear behaviour of complex systems over time using stocks, flows, internal feedback loops, table functions and time delays.
Overview
System dynamics is a methodology and mathematical ...
, A .W. Steiss defined five intersecting systems, including the physical subsystem and behavioral system. For sociological models influenced by systems theory,
Kenneth D. Bailey
Kenneth Dillon Bailey (October 21, 1910 – September 26, 1942) was a United States Marine Corps officer who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for heroic conduct during action during the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. He ...
defined systems in terms of
conceptual
Conceptual may refer to:
Philosophy and Humanities
*Concept
*Conceptualism
*Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis)
*Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition)
*Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism)
*Pragmatism (Conceptual pr ...
,
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
, and abstract systems, either
isolated,
closed
Closed may refer to:
Mathematics
* Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set
* Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points
* Closed interval, ...
, or
open
Open or OPEN may refer to:
Music
* Open (band), Australian pop/rock band
* The Open (band), English indie rock band
* ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969
* ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999
* ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001
* ''Open'' (YF ...
.
Walter F. Buckley
Walter Frederick Buckley (April 17, 1921 – January 27, 2006) was an American sociologist, and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire. Buckley was among the first to apply concepts from general systems theory based on the work ...
defined systems in sociology in terms of
mechanical
Mechanical may refer to:
Machine
* Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement
* Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
,
organic
Organic may refer to:
* Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity
* Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ
Chemistry
* Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...
, and
process
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic.
Things called a process include:
Business and management
*Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...
models.
Bela H. Banathy
Bela may refer to:
Places Asia
*Bela Pratapgarh, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Bela, a small village near Bhandara, Maharashtra, India
*Bela, another name for the biblical city Zoara
* Bela, Dang, in Nepal
* Bela, Janakpur, ...
cautioned that for any inquiry into a system understanding its kind is crucial, and defined "natural" and "designed", i. e. artificial, systems.
It is important not to confuse these abstract definitions. For example, natural systems include subatomic systems,
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 systems ...
, the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
,
galaxies
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
, and the
Universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
, while artificial systems include man-made physical structures, hybrids of natural and artificial systems, and conceptual knowledge. The human elements of organization and functions are emphasized with their relevant abstract systems and representations.
Artificial systems inherently have a major defect: they must be premised on one or more fundamental assumptions upon which additional knowledge is built. This is in strict alignment to the
Gödel's incompleteness theorems
Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is the study of logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research i ...
. The Artificial system can be defined as a "consistent formalized system which contains elementary arithmetic". These fundamental assumptions are not inherently deleterious, but they must by definition be assumed as true, and if they are actually false then the system is not as structurally integral as is assumed (i.e. it is evident that if the initial expession is false, then the Artificial system is not a "consistent formalized system"). For example, in
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
this is very evident in the postulation of
theorem
In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of th ...
s and extrapolation of proofs from them.
George J. Klir
George Jiří Klir (April 22, 1932 – May 27, 2016) was a Czech-American computer scientist and professor of systems sciences at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.
Biography
George Klir was born in 1932 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. ...
maintained that no "classification is complete and perfect for all purposes", and defined systems as abstract,
real
Real may refer to:
Currencies
* Brazilian real (R$)
* Central American Republic real
* Mexican real
* Portuguese real
* Spanish real
* Spanish colonial real
Music Albums
* ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000)
* ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010)
...
, and
conceptual
Conceptual may refer to:
Philosophy and Humanities
*Concept
*Conceptualism
*Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis)
*Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition)
*Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism)
*Pragmatism (Conceptual pr ...
physical systems
A physical system is a collection of physical objects.
In physics, it is a portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment. The environment is ignored except for its effects on the ...
, bounded and
unbounded system
Boundedness or bounded may refer to:
Economics
* Bounded rationality, the idea that human rationality in decision-making is bounded by the available information, the cognitive limitations, and the time available to make the decision
* Bounded ...
s, discrete to continuous, pulse to
hybrid system A hybrid system is a dynamical system that exhibits both continuous and discrete dynamic behavior – a system that can both ''flow'' (described by a differential equation) and ''jump'' (described by a state machine or automaton). Often, the te ...
s, etc. The interactions between systems and their environments are categorized as relatively closed and
open systems. It seems most unlikely that an absolutely closed system can exist or, if it did, that it could be known by man. Important distinctions have also been made between ''hard'' systems – technical in nature and amenable to methods such as
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 enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering util ...
, operations research, and quantitative systems analysis – and ''soft'' systems that involve people and organisations, commonly associated with concepts developed by
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 system ...
and
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 ...
through
Soft Systems Methodology Soft systems methodology (SSM) is an organised way of thinking and it can be used to tackle general problematic situations that arise in the real world and in the management of change by using action. Developed in England by academics at the Lancast ...
(SSM) involving methods such as
action research
Action research is a philosophy and methodology of research generally applied in the social sciences. It seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research, which are linked together by critical refle ...
and emphasis of participatory designs. Where hard systems might be identified as more "scientific", the distinction between them is often elusive.
Cultural system
A cultural system may be defined as the interaction of different elements of
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
. While a cultural system is quite different from a
social system
In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. ...
, sometimes both together are referred to as a "sociocultural system". A major concern of the social sciences is the
problem of order.
Economic system
An economic system is a mechanism (
social institution
Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...
) which deals with the
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
,
distribution Distribution may refer to:
Mathematics
*Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations
* Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...
and
consumption
Consumption may refer to:
*Resource consumption
*Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically
* Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms
* Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
of
goods
In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants
and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not tran ...
and
services
Service may refer to:
Activities
* Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty
* Civil service, the body of employees of a government
* Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...
in a particular
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...
. The economic system is composed of
people
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
,
institutions
Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...
and their relationships to resources, such as the
convention of
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
. It addresses the problems of
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
, like the allocation and scarcity of resources.
The international sphere of interacting states is described and analysed in systems terms by several international relations scholars, most notably in the
neorealist school. This systems mode of international analysis has however been challenged by other schools of international relations thought, most notably the
constructivist school, which argues that an over-large focus on systems and structures can obscure the role of individual agency in social interactions. Systems-based models of international relations also underlies the vision of the international sphere held by the
liberal institutionalist school of thought, which places more emphasis on systems generated by rules and interaction governance, particularly economic governance.
Applications
Systems modeling is generally a basic principle in engineering and in social sciences. The system is the representation of the entities under concern. Hence inclusion to or exclusion from system context is dependent on the intention of the modeler.
No model of a system will include all features of the real system of concern, and no model of a system must include all entities belonging to a real system of concern.
Information and computer science
In
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 Applied science, practical discipli ...
and
information science
Information science (also known as information studies) is an academic field which is primarily concerned with analysis, collection, Categorization, classification, manipulation, storage, information retrieval, retrieval, movement, dissemin ...
, system is a hardware system, software system, or combination, which has
components
Circuit Component may refer to:
•Are devices that perform functions when they are connected in a circuit.
In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems
* System components, an entity with discrete structure, such as an assem ...
as its structure and observable
inter-process communication
In computer science, inter-process communication or interprocess communication (IPC) refers specifically to the mechanisms an operating system provides to allow the processes to manage shared data. Typically, applications can use IPC, categori ...
s as its behavior. Again, an example will illustrate: There are systems of counting, as with
Roman numerals
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
, and various systems for filing papers, or catalogues, and various library systems, of which the
Dewey Decimal Classification
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject.
Section 4.1 ...
is an example. This still fits with the definition of components which are connected together (in this case to facilitate the flow of information).
System can also refer to a framework, aka
platform
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
, be it
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
or hardware, designed to allow software programs to run. A flaw in a component or system can cause the component itself or an entire system to fail to perform its required function, e.g., an incorrect
statement or
data definition
Engineering and physics
In
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 ...
and
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 r ...
, a physical system is the portion of the universe that is being studied (of which a
thermodynamic system
A thermodynamic system is a body of matter and/or radiation, confined in space by walls, with defined permeabilities, which separate it from its surroundings. The surroundings may include other thermodynamic systems, or physical systems that are ...
is one major example). Engineering also has the concept of a system referring to all of the parts and interactions between parts of a complex project.
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 enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering util ...
is the branch of engineering that studies how this type of system should be planned, designed, implemented, built, and maintained. Expected
result
A result (also called upshot) is the final consequence of a sequence of actions or events expressed qualitatively or quantitatively. Possible results include advantage, disadvantage, gain, injury, loss, value and victory. There may be a range ...
is the behavior predicted by the specification, or another source, of the component or system under specified conditions.
Sociology, cognitive science and management research
Social and
cognitive sciences recognize systems in human person models and in human societies. They include human brain functions and mental processes as well as normative ethics systems and social/cultural behavioral patterns.
In
management science
Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...
,
operations research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...
and
organizational development
Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change, the goal of which is to modify an organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational changes are ...
(OD), human organizations are viewed as systems (conceptual systems) of interacting components such as subsystems or system aggregates, which are carriers of numerous complex
business processes
A business process, business method or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a parti ...
(
organizational behavior
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. (1995) ...
s) and organizational structures. Organizational development theorist
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 Learning. ...
developed the notion of organizations as systems in his book ''The Fifth Discipline''.
Organizational theorists such as
Margaret Wheatley Margaret (Meg) Wheatley (born 1944) is an American writer, teacher, speaker, and management consultant who works to create organizations and communities worthy of human habitation. She draws from many disciplines: organizational behavior, chaos th ...
have also described the workings of organizational systems in new metaphoric contexts, such as
quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...
,
chaos theory
Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of scientific study and branch of mathematics focused on underlying patterns and deterministic laws of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, and were once thought to have co ...
, and the
self-organization of systems.
Pure logic
There is also such a thing as a
logical system
A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to a set of rules. These rules, which are used for carrying out the inference of theorems from axioms, are the logical calculus of the formal system.
A form ...
. The most obvious example is the calculus developed simultaneously by
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
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 grea ...
. Another example is
George Boole
George Boole (; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher, and logician, most of whose short career was spent as the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork in Ire ...
's Boolean operators. Other examples have related specifically to philosophy, biology, or cognitive science.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an idea in psychology proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in the journal ''Psychological Review''. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his o ...
applies psychology to biology by using pure logic. Numerous psychologists, including
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
and
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
have developed systems which logically organize psychological domains, such as personalities, motivations, or intellect and desire. Often these domains consist of general categories following a
corollary
In mathematics and logic, a corollary ( , ) is a theorem of less importance which can be readily deduced from a previous, more notable statement. A corollary could, for instance, be a proposition which is incidentally proved while proving another ...
such as a
theorem
In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of th ...
. Logic has been applied to categories such as
taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
,
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 exis ...
,
assessment
Assessment may refer to:
Healthcare
*Health assessment, identifies needs of the patient and how those needs will be addressed
*Nursing assessment, gathering information about a patient's physiological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual s ...
, and
hierarchies
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
.
Strategic thinking
In 1988, military strategist,
John A. Warden III
John Ashley Warden III (born December 21, 1943) is a retired colonel in the United States Air Force. Warden is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. His Air Force career spanned 30 years, from 1965 to 1995, and included tours in Vie ...
introduced the
Five Ring System model in his book, ''
The Air Campaign
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
'', contending that any complex system could be broken down into five concentric rings. Each ring—Leadership, Processes, Infrastructure, Population and Action Units—could be used to isolate key elements of any system that needed change. The model was used effectively by
Air Force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...
planners in the
First Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
.
In the late 1990s, Warden applied his model to business strategy.
See also
;Examples of systems
*
Physical system
A physical system is a collection of physical objects.
In physics, it is a portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment. The environment is ignored except for its effects on the ...
*
Conceptual system A conceptual system is a system that is composed of non-physical objects, i.e. ideas or concepts. In this context a system is taken to mean "an interrelated, interworking set of objects".
Overview
A conceptual system is a conceptual model. Such s ...
*
Control system
A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial c ...
*
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 communication ...
*
Formal system
A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to a set of rules. These rules, which are used for carrying out the inference of theorems from axioms, are the logical calculus of the formal system.
A form ...
*
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 ...
*
Social system
In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. ...
*
Meta-system Meta-systems have several definitions. In general, they link the concepts "system" and "meta-". A "meta-system" is about other systems, such as describing, generalizing, modelling, or analyzing the other system(s).
According to Valentin Turchin, Tu ...
*
Software system
A software system is a system of intercommunicating components based on software forming part of a computer system (a combination of hardware and software). It "consists of a number of separate programs, configuration files, which are used to se ...
*
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
*
Systems in human anatomy
*
Market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
*
Thermodynamic system
A thermodynamic system is a body of matter and/or radiation, confined in space by walls, with defined permeabilities, which separate it from its surroundings. The surroundings may include other thermodynamic systems, or physical systems that are ...
s
;Related topics
*
Glossary of systems theory
A glossary of terms relating to systems theory.
A
* Adaptive capacity: An important part of the Resilience (network), resilience of systems in the face of a wiktionary:perturbation, perturbation, helping to minimise loss of Structural functionalis ...
*
Complexity
Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interaction, interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence.
The term is generall ...
*
Complexity theory and organizations
Complexity theory and organizations, also called complexity strategy or complex adaptive organizations, is the use of the study of complexity systems in the field of strategic management and organizational studies. It draws from research in t ...
*
Black box
In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...
*
System of systems System of systems is a collection of task-oriented or dedicated systems that pool their resources and capabilities together to create a new, more complex system which offers more functionality and performance than simply the sum of the constituent s ...
*
System of systems engineering System of systems engineering (SoSE) is a set of developing processes, tools, and methods for designing, re-designing and deploying solutions to system-of-systems challenges.
Overview
System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) methodology is heavily u ...
*
Systems art
Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics, and systems theory, that reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself.
Systems art emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement extended i ...
References
Bibliography
External links
''Definitions of Systems and Models''by Michael Pidwirny, 1999–2007.
by Roland Müller.
by Roland Müller, (most in German).
{{Authority control
*
Concepts in metaphysics