General Systems Theory
15 May 1997 15:42
"Lord, I disbelieve; help Thou my unbelief."
An off-shoot of
cybernetics, with (so far as I
can see) far less to recommend it. This is not to say that none of its
advocates ever produced anything worthwhile, just that the credit for it should
not go to the verbiage which passed for "approaches to a general theory of
systems" (query --- why is that phrase much more respectable than "theory of
things in general"?). Its hey-day was in the '60s and '70s, when my father
was studying planning, and took a course or three in it from C. West Churchman
(see below); it seems to have become extinct by now, though some of the
survivors have tried to hitch it to
complexity.
It is
not to be confused with
dynamical
systems theory in mathematics, still less systems of equations, though I've
seen philosophers and science-studies people do both.
Recommended:
- David Berlinski, On Systems Analysis: An Essay Concerning the
Limitations of Some Mathematical Methods in the Social, Political, and
Biological Sciences [I've seen my own writing described as "Panzer
assualts,"< but this made me blanche. This is fire-bombing.]
- C. West Churchman, The Systems Approach [A gentle,
almost folksy approach which wisely put the idea of taking everything relevant
into account before the mathematical appratus; but this fails to distinguish
the systems approach from the rational approach in general, especially as
Churchman is frank about the difficulties of deciding what is relevant, and how
little the mathematics actually added.]
- John Gall, illus. R. O. Blechman, Systemantics: How Systems
Work and Especially How They Fail (a.k.a. General
Systemantics)
- The Society for General Systems Research used to (and for all I
know still does) put out an annual journal, General Systems, which
at least in the early issues had many interesting articles, especially some
papers by Ashby, but nothing remotely resembling a
general theory of systems. The decline in its scientific quality was, however,
steady and perceptible, and even the least fastidious must have written it off
after about 1980.
To read:
- B. D. O. Anderson, M. A. Arbib and E. G. Manes, Foundations
of System Theory: Finitary and Infinitary Conditions
- Daniel Belgrad, The Culture of Feedback: Ecological Thinking in Seventies America
- Guy Beneveniste, The Politics of Expertise [1972]
- John Biggart et al. (eds.), Alexander Bogdanov and
the Origins of Systems Thinking in Russia
- Robert Boguslaw, The New Utopians: A Study of System Design
and Social Change [1965]
- C. West Churchman, The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic
Concepts of Systems and Organization
- Robert L. Flood, Liberating Systems Theory
- Ida R. Hoos, Systems Analysis in Social Policy: A Critical
Review [=? Systems Analysis + Public Policy]
- Agatha C. Hughes and Thomas P. Hughes (eds.), Systems,
Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering,
World War II and After
- Stephen B. Johnson, The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management
in American and European Space Programs
- Jennifer S. Light, From Warfare to Welfare: Defense
Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War America
- Robert Lilienfeld, The Rise of Systems Theory: An Ideological
Analysis
- N. Luhmann, Social Systems
- H. H. Pattee
