General System Theory

Hofkirchner, Wolfgang; Schafranek, Matthias

doi:10.1016/b978-0-444-52076-0.50006-7

Cited by 38 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Systems are layered. Bertalanffy clearly distinguishes a level of the parts, comprising those parts as entities together with their behaviour and interaction, from a level on which he situates the organizational relations (Hofkirchner & Schafranek, ). I suggest calling the level of the parts the microlevel of the system in question and calling the level of the whole the macrolevel of that system.…”

Section: Emergencementioning

confidence: 99%

Social relations: Building on Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Hofkirchner

2019

Syst Res Behav Sci

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Ludwig von Bertalanffy did not leave us a legacy of a social systems theory.Nonetheless, reconstructing his general approach to systems provides us with several ideas on how to build a theory of social systems. The concept of social relations easily connects to Bertalanffy's concept of relations of organization.His way of thinking underlines that social relations, as any relations of organization, are unobservables that long for theoretical means of understanding. His conception of the world would assign social relations a special place in a hierarchy of processes internal to a social system-they represent the whole of the system that nonetheless emerges from the interaction of the actors as parts thereof.Last but not least, his world view would orient us towards an organization of social systems in which the dialectic of social relations and actors balances unity and diversity as an Ought. These three main ideas of Bertalanffy offer system theoretical pillars that can inspire current social theory.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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Section: Emergencementioning

confidence: 99%

Social relations: Building on Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Hofkirchner

2019

Syst Res Behav Sci

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“…Several factors contributed to this lack of progress. The early systemists were not able to present a clear explanation of what a GST would look like (Hofkirchner and Schafranek, , p. 178), and they had very limited ideas about how to actually develop it (Pouvreau and Drack, , p. 332; Pouvreau, , p. 859). Equally, they were unable to say anything convincing about how GST would bring science to bear on areas where it traditionally had little to say, such as the study of the nature of subjectivity, values and meanings (Pouvreau and Drack, , p. 332).…”

Section: From Disciplinarity To Transdisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving from Disciplinarity to Transdisciplinarity in the Service of Thrivable Systems

Rousseau

Wilby

2014

Syst. Res.

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In 2011 Jennifer Wilby proposed a new framework for viewing the philosophy, principles and practice of systems thinking, in furtherance of research and practice into transdisciplinary forms of intervention. This new framework reveals the effect of the interactions between systems principles and system structure in producing complex systems behavior, demonstrates why such methodologies are classed as systemic and anticipates how these systemic methodologies can be used to support transdisciplinarity in exploration, design and management. In this light Alexander Laszlo's call for building a thrivable global system, presented at the 57th Conference of the ISSS, represents a concrete example of the problems and opportunities foreseen in the general call Wilby made in 2012 for developing and using transdisciplinary methods that can nurture complex systems to function effectively and harmoniously. Exploring the underpinning philosophy, principles and practice for a new era of systemic intervention that meets the challenges of the Anthropocene is the aim of the work presented in this paper, focused on linking the transdisciplinary nature of thrivable systems with the development of transdisciplinary systems research and practice.

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“…Because systems occur in all concrete subject disciplines, the systems sciences provide formal theories that have application across these different scientific domains. The systems sciences thus provided the first truly transdisciplinary theories (Hofkirchner & Schafranek, , p. 193).…”

Section: Von Bertalanffy's General System Theory: Knowledge That Tranmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If this unification schema is the final word on the subject, it threatens both science and spirituality with relativism. To systems thinkers, this would suggest that the unification programme provided by GST alone is incomplete, for they have always advocated both the existence of a comprehensible concrete reality (inter alia on the causal consistency of the experienced world) (Bunge, , p. 16; E. Laszlo, , p. 8) and the importance of positive ethics (Hofkirchner & Schafranek, , p. 192).…”

Section: Von Bertalanffy's General System Theory: Knowledge That Tranmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems Philosophy and the Unity of Knowledge

Rousseau

2013

Syst. Res.

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The world as we experience it appears to be a kind of unity, and yet different sectors of the academy have apparently incommensurable world views. For example, in the social sciences, the possibility of objective knowledge is disclaimed (constructivism); whereas in the natural sciences, it is insisted upon (e.g. physicalism). In this paper, I argue that Systems Philosophy suggests that there are empirical grounds for considering that there is an intelligibly ordered reality underlying the phenomena of the experienced world and that a unity of knowledge is therefore possible in principle. I discuss possible ways in which work towards such unification can be approached. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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General System Theory

Cited by 38 publications

References 8 publications

Social relations: Building on Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Social relations: Building on Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Moving from Disciplinarity to Transdisciplinarity in the Service of Thrivable Systems

Systems Philosophy and the Unity of Knowledge

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