General Systems Theory
General Systems Theory (GST) is an interdisciplinary framework that seeks to understand the fundamental principles governing the origin, function, and maintenance of both natural and social systems. Defined as a collection of interconnected elements that form a complex whole, GST emphasizes a holistic approach, focusing on systems as entities rather than merely analyzing their individual components. Pioneered by Austrian biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy in the 20th century, GST has influenced various fields, including psychology, sociology, ecology, and cybernetics, and has contributed to the development of complexity and chaos theories.
One of the key concepts within GST is that of "open systems," which can interact with their environments—a principle applicable to both biological and social structures. GST also explores emergent properties, which are unique characteristics of systems that arise from the interaction of their components, as well as self-regulation, or homeostasis, where systems adjust themselves in response to changes. The theory encourages the identification of similarities and adaptive responses across diverse systems, fostering a deeper understanding of complex adaptive systems—a foundational aspect of many contemporary scientific inquiries, including artificial intelligence and ecological modeling.
General Systems Theory
General systems theory (GST) is a twentieth-century interdisciplinary field aimed at studying the general principles underlying the origin, function, and maintenance of natural and social systems. A system is defined in the field as a set of connected elements or parts that form a complex whole. Many of the early principles of GST are attributed to Austrian biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy, who began publishing research in the field in the 1960s. Research in GST has been applied to a variety of fields, including psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, ecology, and cybernetics. GST played a role in the development of mathematical and theoretical fields studying complex systems like weather patterns, neural networks, and ecological organization. Among other fields, GST was a precursor of complexity theory, chaos theory, and adaptive systems science.
Origin of GST
Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian theoretical biologist and philosopher whose postwar research led to the emergence of GST as a unique field of science. Bertalanffy began teaching at the University of Vienna in 1934. During this time, he began theorizing about the nature of complex systems. He first organized his ideas about systems under the description Allgemeine Systemlehre. While "General Systems Theory" is the closest literal English translation of the term, Lehre has a broader meaning than the scientific definition of "theory," referring to any set of concepts presented systematically. Thus, when detractors criticized GST for not providing a cohesive, falsifiable scientific theory of systems, supporters contended that the language issue had led them to mistake Bertalanffy’s intention in creating it.
Bertalanffy left Austria in 1948, taking a series of positions in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. In 1954, while a research fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, Bertalanffy first presented his proposal for a new interdisciplinary science of general systems at a conference for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Working with a group of like-minded academics, including economist Kenneth Boulding, physiologist Ralph Gerard, and mathematician Anatol Rapoport, Bertalanffy founded the Society for General Systems Research, which was renamed the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) in 1988.
General Principles
GST is a holistic discipline, in that the field is concerned with examining the function of systems as whole entities, rather than taking the mechanistic approach of conducting diagnostic explorations of the individual parts, functions, or processes active within each system.
The idea of an open system is essential to GST, and describes a system that is able to affect and be affected by the environment. A cell, for instance, is an open system. Because the system is bounded by a permeable membrane, the cell can accept input from the environment in the form of food, heat, electromagnetic waves, and kinetic energy, and can also produce output that affects the environment. There are a variety of open systems in nature, including Earth as a whole planet, surrounded by a permeable atmosphere. There are also open social systems, such as businesses, peer groups, or families.
One of the primary concerns in systems science is emergent properties, which are characteristics that appear only at the system level and cannot be fully explained by or attributed to the parts making up the system. For instance, ant colonies display behavioral capabilities that are beyond those of individual ants. As each ant makes instinctual decisions based on environmental and social cues, the colony as a whole takes on behaviors that cannot be predicted by studying an individual ant.
Another focus in systems science is the study of self-regulation, which is a process whereby a system’s processes or output serve to change the function of the system, thus allowing the system to regulate itself in response to changes in the environment. Self-regulation, also called homeostasis, is found in many types of systems, including physical, psychological, and social systems. In humans, for instance, self-regulating mechanisms help to control blood pressure, sugar content in the blood, and the proportion of waste in the circulatory system.
Systems science is focused on finding homologies, which are similarities that represent a common origin, and isomorphisms, which can be explained as a similar response between two unrelated systems to similar or identical external influences. For example, the wing of a bat and the arm of a human are homologous, because they are derived from the same structure that evolved in a common ancestor species.
Expansion of Systems Science
One field related to GST is cybernetics, which is the study of regulatory and communication mechanisms within systems. Cybernetics studies the movement of information through an open system, and also how the information received by a system is used to regulate system properties. Beginning in the 1940s, cybernetics was increasingly applied to mechanical and computer systems, but the field also applies to biological systems.
Systems theory was also an early influence on other subfields in the study of complex systems, including chaos theory, chaotic mathematics, and complexity theory. Together, these subfields have been helping to develop a better understanding of complex adaptive systems, which are systems that are composed of many different types of elements and have the capacity, on the system level, to adapt given experience and interaction with the environment. Adaptive systems therefore become tuned to physical or social conditions. The study of complex adaptive systems is applicable to a wide variety of subfields, including artificial intelligence and neurobiology, climate and earth systems modeling, and complex prediction systems for examining long-term developmental systems like species evolution and ecological development.
Bibliography
"About ISSS." International Society for the Systems Sciences, www.isss.org/about-isss/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Bertalanffy, Ludwig von. General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. Braziller, 1969.
Bertalanffy, Ludwig von. "An Outline of General System Theory." The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 1, no. 2, 1950, pp. 134–65.
Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science, www.bcsss.org. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Hofkirchner, Wolfgang, and Matthias Schafranek. "General System Theory." Philosophy of Complex Systems, edited by Cliff Hooker, North Holland, 2011.
Luhmann, Niklas. Introduction to Systems Theory. Polity, 2013.
Mobus, George E., and Michael C. Kalton. Principles of Systems Science. Springer, 2014.
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