Glossary of systems theory
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A glossary of terms relating to
systems theory Systems theory is the Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, de ...
.


A

*
Adaptive capacity Adaptive capacity relates to the capacity of systems, institutions, humans and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences. In the context of ecosystems, adaptive capacity is deter ...
: An important part of the resilience of systems in the face of a perturbation, helping to minimise loss of function in individual human, and collective social and biological systems. * Allopoiesis: The process whereby a system produces something other than the system itself. * Allostasis: The process of achieving stability, or
homeostasis In biology, homeostasis (British English, British also homoeostasis; ) is the state of steady internal physics, physical and chemistry, chemical conditions maintained by organism, living systems. This is the condition of optimal functioning fo ...
, through physiological or behavioral change. *
Autopoiesis The term autopoiesis (), one of several current theories of life, 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 Realizat ...
: The process by which a system regenerates itself through the self-reproduction of its own elements and of the network of interactions that characterize them. An autopoietic system renews, repairs, and replicates or reproduces itself in a flow of matter and energy. Note: from a strictly Maturanian point of view, autopoiesis is an essential property of biological/living systems.


B

*
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 ...
: A technical term for a device or system or object when it is viewed primarily in terms of its input and output characteristics, without observing or describing its internal structure or behaviour. * Boundaries: The parametric conditions, often vague, always subjectively stipulated, that delimit and define a system and set it apart from its environment.


C

*
Cascading failure A cascading failure is a failure in a system of interconnection, interconnected parts in which the failure of one or few parts leads to the failure of other parts, growing progressively as a result of positive feedback. This can occur when a singl ...
: Failure in a system of interconnected parts, where the service provided depends on the operation of a preceding part, and the failure of a preceding part can trigger the failure of successive parts. *
Closed system A closed system is a natural physical system that does not allow transfer of matter in or out of the system, althoughin the contexts of physics, chemistry, engineering, etc.the transfer of energy (e.g. as work or heat) is allowed. Physics In cl ...
: A system which can exchange energy (as heat or work), but not matter, with its surroundings. *
Complexity Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generally used to c ...
: A complex system is characterised by components that interact in multiple ways and follow local rules. A complicated system is characterised by its layers. *
Culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
: The result of individual
learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and ...
processes that distinguish one social group of higher animals from another. In humans culture is the set of interrelated concepts, products and activities through which humans group themselves, interact with each other, and become aware of themselves and the world around them.


D

* Development: The process of liberating a system from its previous set of limiting conditions. It is an amelioration of conditions or quality. * Dissipative structure: A term invented by
Ilya Prigogine Viscount Ilya Romanovich Prigogine (; ; 28 May 2003) was a Belgian physical chemist of Russian-Jewish origin, noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility. Prigogine's work most notably earned him the 19 ...
to describe complex chemical structures undergoing the process of chemical change through the dissipation of entropy into their environment, and the corresponding importation of "negentropy" from their environment. Also known as syntropic systems.


E

*
Embeddedness In economics and economic sociology, embeddedness refers to the degree to which economic activity is constrained by non-economic institutions. The term was created by economic historian Karl Polanyi as part of his substantivist approach. Polanyi ...
: A state in which one system is nested in another system. *
Emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole. Emergence plays a central rol ...
: The appearance of novel characteristics exhibited on the level of the whole ensemble, but not by the components in isolation. * Enantiostasis: The ability of an open system, especially a living
organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
, to stabilize and conserve function in spite of an unstable environment. * Entanglement: A state in which the manner of being, or form of existence, of one system is inextricably tied to that of another system or set of systems. *
Entropy Entropy is a scientific concept, most commonly associated with states of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynamics, where it was first recognized, to the micros ...
: In physics, entropy is a measure of energy that is expended in a physical system but does no useful work, and tends to decrease the organizational order of the system. * Environment: The context within which a system exists. It is composed of all things that are external to the system, and it includes everything that may affect the system, and may be affected by it at any given time. * Equifinality: In open systems, the principle that the same final state can be reached from different initial conditions, or in different ways. *
Evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
: A tendency toward greater structural complexity, ecological and/or organizational simplicity, more efficient modes of operation, greater dynamic harmony, etc. As a cosmic process, it is not limited to the domain of biological phenomena, but extends to include all aspects of change in open dynamic systems with a throughput of information and energy. *
Evolutionary systems Evolutionary systems are a type of system, which reproduce with mutation whereby the most fit elements survive, and the less fit die down. One of the developers of the evolutionary systems thinking is Béla H. Bánáthy. Evolutionary systems a ...
: A type of system which reproduces with mutation.


F

*
Feedback 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 handle ...
: A functional monitoring
signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...
obtained from a given dynamic and continuous system. A feedback function only makes sense if this monitoring signal is looped back into an eventual control structure within a system and compared with a known desirable state. The difference between the feedback monitoring signal and the desirable state of the system gives the notion of error. The amount of error can guide corrective actions in the system that can bring the system back to the desirable state.


H

*
Heterarchy A heterarchy is a system of organization where the elements of the organization are unranked (non- hierarchical) or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways. Definitions of the term vary among the disciplines: in soc ...
: An ordering of things in which there is no single peak or leading element, and in which the element that is dominant at a given time depends on the total situation. The term is often used in contrast to hierarchy, i.e. a vertical arrangement of entities (systems and their subsystems), usually ordered from the top downwards rather than from the bottom upwards. * Holarchy: A concept invented by
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
to describe behavior that is partly a function of individual nature and partly a function of the nature of the embedding system, generally operating in a bottom upwards fashion. *
Holism Holism is the interdisciplinary idea that systems possess properties as wholes apart from the properties of their component parts. Julian Tudor Hart (2010''The Political Economy of Health Care''pp.106, 258 The aphorism "The whole is greater than t ...
: A non-reductionist descriptive and investigative strategy for generating explanatory principles of whole systems. Attention is focused on the emergent properties of the whole rather than on the reductionist behavior of the isolated parts. *
Holon (philosophy) A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole in and of itself, as well as a part of a larger whole. In this way, a holon can be considered a subsystem within a larger hierarchical system. The holon represents a way to overcome the dich ...
: A whole in itself as well as a part of a larger system. * Homeorhesis: A concept encompassing dynamical systems which return to a trajectory, as opposed to systems which return to a particular state, which is termed homeostasis. *
Homeostasis In biology, homeostasis (British English, British also homoeostasis; ) is the state of steady internal physics, physical and chemistry, chemical conditions maintained by organism, living systems. This is the condition of optimal functioning fo ...
: The property of either an open system or a
closed system A closed system is a natural physical system that does not allow transfer of matter in or out of the system, althoughin the contexts of physics, chemistry, engineering, etc.the transfer of energy (e.g. as work or heat) is allowed. Physics In cl ...
(especially a living
organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
) which regulates its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition. * Human activity systems: Designed social systems organized for a purpose, which they attain by carrying out specific functions.


I

*
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 ...
: A system in which the total energy-mass is conserved without any external exchange happening.


L

* Lowerarchy: A specific type of hierarchy involving a 'bottom up' arrangement of entities such that the few are influenced by the many.


M

*
Metastability In chemistry and physics, metastability is an intermediate energetic state within a dynamical system other than the system's state of least energy. A ball resting in a hollow on a slope is a simple example of metastability. If the ball is onl ...
: The ability of a non-equilibrium state to persist for some period of time. * Model building: A disciplined inquiry by which a conceptual (abstract) representation of a system is constructed or a representation of expected outcomes/output is portrayed.


O

* Open system: A state and characteristics of that state in which a system continuously interacts with its environment. Open systems are those that maintain their state and exhibit the characteristics of openness previously mentioned. * Structure–organization–process: ''See Structure–organization–process for various definitions.''


P

*
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 s ...
: A naturally occurring or designed sequence of actions of an agent or changes of properties or attributes of an object or system. * Process model: An organized arrangement of systems concepts and principles that portray the behavior of a system through time. Its metaphor is the "motion-picture" of "movie" of the system. * Structure–organization–process: ''See Structure–organization–process for various definitions.''


R

*
Reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical positi ...
: One kind of scientific orientation that seeks to understand phenomena by a) breaking them down into their smallest possible parts (a process known as analytic reductionism), or conversely b) conflating them to a one-dimensional totality (a process known as holistic reductionism).


S

*
Self-organization Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order and disorder, order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spont ...
: A process in which the internal organization of a
system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...
, normally an open system, increases in
complexity Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generally used to c ...
without being guided or managed by an outside source. * Self-organizing systems: Systems that typically (though not always) display
emergent properties In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole. Emergence plays a central role ...
. *Space system: A collection of elements that work together to perform a task involving the space environment. *
Steady state In systems theory, a system or a process is in a steady state if the variables (called state variables) which define the behavior of the system or the process are unchanging in time. In continuous time, this means that for those properties ''p' ...
: A state in which the variables (called
state variable A state variable is one of the set of Variable (mathematics), variables that are used to describe the mathematical "state" of a dynamical system. Intuitively, the state of a system describes enough about the system to determine its future behavi ...
s) which define the behavior of a system or a process are unchanging in time. In
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
, it is a more general situation than
dynamic equilibrium In chemistry, a dynamic equilibrium exists once a reversible reaction occurs. Substances initially transition between the reactants and products at different rates until the forward and backward reaction rates eventually equalize, meaning the ...
. If a
system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...
is in steady state then the recently observed behaviour of the system will continue into the future. In stochastic systems, the probabilities that various states will be repeated will remain constant. * Strong emergence: A type of
emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole. Emergence plays a central rol ...
in which the emergent property is irreducible to its individual constituents. * Structure–organization–process: ''See Structure–organization–process for various definitions.'' * Subsystem: A major component of a system. It is made up of two or more interacting and interdependent components. Subsystems of a system interact in order to attain their own purpose(s) and the purpose(s) of the system in which they are embedded. * Suprasystem: The entity that is composed of a number of component systems organized in interacting relationships in order to serve their embedding suprasystem. *
Sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
: The ability of a system to maintain itself with no loss of function for extended periods of time. In human terms it is an ideal of creative and responsible stewardship of resources—human, natural, and financial—to generate stakeholder value while contributing to the well-being of current and future generations of all beings. * Synchrony or
synchronicity Synchronicity () is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Jung held that this was a healthy fu ...
: In engineering; concurrence of periods and/or phases; simultaneity of events or motions: contemporaneous occurrences. In evolutionary
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.Anderson, Virginia, & Johnson, Lauren (1997). ''Systems Thinking Ba ...
; a fortunate coincidence of phenomenon and/or of events. *
Synergy Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts (i.e., a non-linear addition of force, energy, or effect). The term ''synergy'' comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία ' f ...
: The process by which a system generates emergent properties resulting in the condition in which a system may be considered more than the sum of its parts, or equal to the sum of its parts plus their relationships. * Syntony: In evolutionary systems thinking, evolutionary consonance, the occurrence and persistence of an evolutionarily tuned dynamic regime, a purposeful creative aligning and tuning with the evolutionary flows of one's milieu. In traditional radio engineering, a condition in which two oscillators have the same resonant frequency. * Syntropy: The process of
negentropy In information theory and statistics, negentropy is used as a measure of distance to normality. It is also known as negative entropy or syntropy. Etymology The concept and phrase "''negative entropy''" was introduced by Erwin Schrödinger in ...
-importation. A syntropic system is a dissipative structure. *
Systems design The basic study of system design is the understanding of component parts and their subsequent interaction with one another. Systems design has appeared in a variety of fields, including sustainability, computer/software architecture, and sociolog ...
: A decision-oriented disciplined inquiry that aims at the construction of a model that is an abstract representation of a future system. *
Soft systems methodology Soft systems methodology (SSM) is an organised way of thinking applicable to problematic social situations and in the management of change by using action. It was developed in England by academics at the Lancaster Systems Department on the basis o ...
: A systemic approach for tackling real-world problematic situations, an approach which provides a problem-structuring framework for users to deal with the kind of messy problem situations that lack a formal problem definition.


W

* Weak emergence: A type of
emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole. Emergence plays a central rol ...
in which the emergent property is reducible to its individual constituents. *
White-box testing White-box testing (also known as clear box testing, glass box testing, transparent box testing, and structural testing) is a method of software testing that tests internal structures or workings of an application, as opposed to its functionality ...
: A technical term for a device or system analyzed or tested based on knowledge of its internal structure (compare to
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 ...
). * Wholeness: In reference to systems, the condition in which systems are seen to be structurally divisible, but functionally indivisible wholes with emergent properties.


See also

* Glossary of Unified Modeling Language terms *
List of basic science topics The following Outline (list), outline is provided as a topical overview of science; the discipline of science is defined as both the systematic effort of acquiring knowledge through observation, experimentation and reasoning, and the body of kn ...
* List of glossaries * List of types of systems theory


References


External links


Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems
from the Principia Cybernetica Web.
The ASC Glossary of Cybernetics
by the
American Society for Cybernetics The American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) is an American non-profit scholastic organization for the advancement of cybernetics as a science, a discipline, a meta-discipline and the promotion of cybernetics as basis for an interdisciplinary disc ...

ASC Glossary on Cybernetics and Systems Theory
by Stuart Umpleby (ed.) from the American Society for Cybernetics.
International Encyclopedia of Cybernetics and Systems
edited by Charles François, (1997) München: K. G. Saur. __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Glossary Of Systems Theory
Systems theory Systems theory is the Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, de ...
* * Wikipedia glossaries using unordered lists