SYSTEMIC THINKING
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3432 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
A general approach to scientific inquiry that is specially interested in the study of complex situations and systems, using specific concepts and models.
Back in 1941, A. ANGYAL was already comparing the causal way of thinking with the systemic one, in the following terms: “In causal research, the task is to single out from a multiplicity of data, pairs of facts between which there is a necessary connection. In systems thinking the task is not to find direct relations between members but to find the superordinate system in which they are connected or to define the positional value of members relative to the superordinate system” (1941, p.24).
He added: “One thing… seems clear, namely that systems cannot be deduced from relations, while the deduction of relations from systems still remains a possibility. If that is the case then the more general logical genus would be 'system', while 'relation' would be a reduced, simplified system which is adequate only for the logical presentation of very simple specialized constellations” (Ibid.,p.25).
This viewpoint seems however somehow contradictory with the concepts and methods of KLIR's reconstructability analysis. The ideas which seem to be lacking here are those about relations'' between relations and relations'' inbetween levels.
From a different viewpoint, M. BUNGE writes: “Some systems theorists believe that systemics belongs in mathematics. I submit that this opinion is mistaken, because, unlike pure mathematics, systemics is about real things. (Systemics has a mathematical formalism but a factual content). Others seem to believe that systemics is a mushy popular philosophy, rehashed romantic talk about unalyzable wholes. This opinion too is mistaken, because systemics, unlike holism, analyzes systems, and furthermore it does so with the help of mathematics — a b-te noire of all romantics” (1979, p.221).
It should be observed however that systemics uses evermore new mathematical tools of, at least, a partially qualitative character.