Systems Theory
Sometime more than 300 years before the birth of Christ, Aristotle proclaimed that, “the whole is more than the sum of its part.” This declaration was to set the stage for the eventual development of the twentieth century philosophy of Systems Theory. In the society of Aristotle’s time, people conceived the world in holistic and teleological terms, which defined the cosmic order. Later, however, during the scientific revolution, cause and mathematical notions replaced the holistic view. The idea that elements could be broken down to their rudiments in order to be understood was the view of the time following the scientific revolution, but this would again change (Bertalanffy, 1975, p. 149).
As late as the late 1920s, philosophers and scientists began to realize that the fundamental characteristic of a entity was its organization. They realized that the examination of individual parts could not explain various phenomena. Bertalanffy, being a biologist, realized that the main goal of biology was to discover biological systems. This was termed “organismic biology.” However, later, Bertalanffy realized that essentially, one could replace the word “biology” with any other word such as social group, technology, and so on, and it would hold true as well. For example, the main goal of technology is to discover technological systems. The main goal of social groups is to discover social group systems.
Obviously, the idea of a “system” must be further defined. Bertalanffy defines a system as, “a set of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the environment,” (1975, p. 159). Heylighen, however, specifies that, “System and environment are in general separated by a boundary” (1998). Combining the two, Lucas says that, “Systems are the lifeblood of complexity thinking and can be defined as a group of interacting parts functioning as a whole and distinguishable from its surroundings by recognizable boundaries. Systems have properties that are emergent, that are not intrinsically found within any of the component parts” (1999).
Systems Theory, therefore would be defined by Heylighen and Joslyn as, “ . . .the transdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence. It investigates both the principles common to all complex entities, and the (usually mathematical) models which can be used to describe them” (1992). Simply put, Systems Theory is the study of the way an individual/organism is organized, how it works as a whole, how all the various parts work together to form the whole, and how those parts interact with each other, the whole and the environment.
There are open systems and closed systems. Open systems are those that interact with the environment, while closed systems function in isolation. This is analogous to open and closed countries. Albania was a closed country, or system, for forty years; no one was allowed in, no one was allowed out, and there was no trade among other countries. Closed systems function the same way. Open systems, on the other hand, interact with the environment around them. In terms of learning and cognition, this point is important. As Laszlo says, “Human beings are environmentally transacting open systems; and they do not perceive and cognize something just because it is there, or necessarily the way it is there” (1972, p. 197). This theory has similarities to constructivism in that elements work together. In systems theory, just because something is, does not mean it is perceived, nor learned. Interaction must occur, and elements must be examined in terms of their whole as well as their parts. Similarly to what Aristotle believed, learning is more than just learning mathematical formulas, memorizing English poems, or reciting the periodic table of elements; learning is more than the sum of its parts.
References
Bertalanffy, Ludwig von (1975). Perspectives on general system theory scientific-philosophical studies. New York: George Braziller.
Heylighen, F. (1998) Basic concepts of the systems approach [WWW document] in: F. Heylighen, C. Joslyn and V. Turchin (editors): Principia Cybernetica Web (Principia Cybernetica, Brussels), Retrieved October 17, 2002 from http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SYSAPPR.html.
Heylighen, F., and Joslyn, C. (1992). What is systems theory? [WWW document] in: F. Heylighen, C. Joslyn and V. Turchin (editors): Principia Cybernetica Web (Principia Cybernetica, Brussels), Retrieved October 17, 2002 from http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SYSTHEOR.html
Laszlo, Ervin (1972). Introduction to systems philosophy. New York: Gordon and Breach.
Lucas, Chris (June, 1999). Cybernetics and stochastic systems [WWW document]. Retrived October 17,2002 from http://www.calresco.org/lucas/systems.htm