User:Thomas Mandel/General Systems Theory

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The book General System Theory was written by Ludwitg von Bertanffy and first published in 1968. It is not, however, a book about a theory in the conventional sense. The English word "Theory" is a translation of the original German "Theorie" which has a meaning closer to the English word "teaching." We will be using the phrase General System Theory (GST) throughout this article because that is how it was translated and used in the English languages.

GST is primarily about general principles of systems which can be applied to all systems regardless of their content. When used in this way, system has a general "philosophical" definition which is defined by Bertalanffy as "elements in standing relationship." (ref) Systems such as a system of arrangement or organization, or as a procedure or method, or grouping for classification or analysis, or even "my system" are not the kinds of systems Bertalanffy talked about.

It is necessary to study not only parts and processes in isolation, but also to solve the decisive problems found in the organization and order unifying them, resulting from dynamic interacton of parts, and making the behavoir of parts different when studied in isolation or within the whole.

He often referred to organismic systems, essentially those systems which integrate the elements resulting in a new and different whole. This aspect is crucial to understanding integrative systems because the new whole will generally have properties that are not found in the constituent parts. One example is liquid water, made of gases. We do not experience those gases, instead we experience their relationship,e.g., the wetness.

===Introduction===

On the History of Systems Theory

The meaning of General System Theory===

"We may state as characteristic of modern science that the scheme of isolable units acting in one-way causality has proved to be insufficient. Hence the appearance, in all fields of science, of notions like wholeness, holistic, oraganismic, gestalt, etc., which all signify that, in the last resort, we must think in terms of systems of elements in mutual interaction."

To think in terms of elements in mutual interaction requires a different way of thinking. We usually think in terms of objects or things, on the other hand, to think in terms of interactions would be like thinking in terms of what things are doing. It is this different kind of thinking that enables identical principles which can apply to different situations, or to different things. A good example is our own DNA which codes for genes. There are 21 different amino acids each one produced by a different "codon". But the "codon" is made of only four different bases It is not the bases themselves that code for the end product, but the various kinds of relationships among them. From four different "elements" as many as 30.000 different proteins can be translated in a typical organism.

Some System concepts

Complexity

Perhaps the primary essential feature of a system is that is is a complex of parts/wholes. It is this inherent complexity that differentiates a system from conventional reductionism which investigates a single part in isolation

Elements

The elements of a system can take any form. The essential point is that a single element by itself does not make a system. If a system is reduced to its simplest form, at least four (4) different conceptual elements will be isolated.

Relationships

Relatinships here refer to the mutual interaction between the elements or parts. This may be static (the relationship of these letters) or dynamic (The relationship of the meanings of these words)

Emergence

A feature of all integrative systems which is responsible for the formation of a unique whole which has properties not necessarily found in the parts alone.

Whole

When elements are combined in a relationship, they can be considered as a single whole

Environment

A system can be closed or open. When a system interacts with the environment it is considered an open system

Hierarchy

A system involves several perspectives which when taken together form a hierarchy

Holon

A holon is a part of a particular system and also can be a whole of a different system.

Feedback

In a dynamic system information is fed back to the initial state for example a theromostat. Feedback is an essential feature of cybernetics, a particular kind f system.

Interaction

Interaction is similar to a relationship but refers to a mutual action

Equifinality

When all states lead to a common final state

Autopoeisis

Self reproduction

Boundary

Boundaries are set by the evaluator according to the desires and needs of the evaluator

Open system

A system that interacts with something outside of it or derives its energy from outside of it.

Complex system

A system by definition is a complex. When systems interact with systems are called complex systems.

Non-linear systems

A complex system having an output which does not change in a linear way

System gestalt

• 

  This graphic is a gestalt figure. It can be perceived in one of two ways. It can be perceived as a collecton of parts (with the emphasis on the black), or it can be perceived as if those parts form one whole (with the emphasis on the white). It will be necessary to look at the figure for a period of time before they will change from one to the other. This figure illustrates how an integrative systems combines parts into an emergent whole,

Some aspects of System Theory in Biology

===The system concept in the Science of Man===

General System Theory in Psychology and Psychiatry

Family therapy...

The Relativity of Categories

Language is an important factor in the formation of any theory. Language creates boundaries and boundaries determine what is and what isn't considered. Bertalanffy compares the language of the Hopi to that of the showing that the Hopi do not base their language on time. This influence of language has been investigated in part by B. Whorf explained by Bertalanffy -

"The hypothesis offered by Whorf is: "...that the commonly held belief that the cognitive processes of all human beings possess a common logical structure which operates prior to and independantly of communication through language, is erroneous. It is Whorf's view that the linguistic patterns themselves determine what the individual perceives in this world and how he thinks about it. Since these patterns vary widely, the modes of thinking and perceiving in groups utilizing different linguistic systems will result in different world views, (Fearing, 1954)" (p222)

"It may be mentioned in passing, that the relations between language ansd world view is not unidirectional but reciprocal, a fact which perhaps was not made sufficiently clear by Whorf. The structure of language seems to determine which traits of reality are abstracted and hence what forms the categories of thinking take on. On the other hand, the world outlook determines and forms the language." (p 238)

What may be of greater significance and importance to biology and science in general is the realization made clear by the Genome Project that knowing merely the sequence of events is not enough to understand how life works. Also made clear is the realization that a tremendous amount of information is contained not in the objects of study but in the relationships that they maintain. As a result a new disciplince has emerged in the form of "Systems Biology" Systems Biology is new because it goes beyond the traditional "mechanistic" methodology of investigating isolated entities and instead focuses on the organization of those entities. This "perspectivism" requires the investigation of several entities in standing relationship and in many cases the whole organism. The organization of wholes requires the introduction of new categories particularily the category of interaction and that of the whole. While not historically "new" systems biology has come to recognize that the whole comprised of interacting elements will have properties that cannot be found in the elements as isolated entities. The principles of organization are general principles, the application of which is independant of what is being organized. The laws of organization found in the relationships of genetic entities are the same laws found in the organization of these linguistic entities in that it is not the entities such as the balck and white marks or the four bases that carry the information, but the relationships which emerge as new wholes. Thus the primary tool in systemoogy is the study of relationships.

References

von Bertalanffy, Ludwig. (1968) General System Theory, George Braziller, New York. ISBN 0-8076-0453-4