Related Papers
Ludwig von Bertalanffy Forerunner of Evolutionary Systems Theory
2008 •
wolfgang hofkirchner
Ludwig von Bertalanffy is known as founding father of the General System Theory (GST). When Ludwig von Bertalanffy created his GST amidst the last century, he was able to overcome the deep cleft between the controversial theoretical approaches to biology – mechanicism and vitalism. He did so by formulating laws of organisation ruling biota and after generalising them he successfully applied them to different domains such as medicine, psychology, psychotherapy. Methodologically, Bertalanffy revived synthesis, ontologically, he advocated perspectivism, and, ethically, he was humanist. His main concern was the fate of the human civilisation and the new way of thinking necessary for the survival of mankind. Evolutionary systems theory thus is the most recent elaboration of Bertalanffy’s original GST-ideas. “Unity through diversity” is the motto that holds for evolutionary systems theory, too – epistemologically, ontologically, and ethically, if it takes advantage of categories of dialec...
Quarterly Review of Biology
On the Making of a System Theory of Life: Paul A Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy's Conceptual Connection
2007 •
David POUVREAU
Kybernetes
The project of 'general systemology' instigated by Ludwig von Bertalanffy-Genealogy, genesis, reception and advancement
2013 •
David POUVREAU
The scope and limitations of Von Bertalanffy's systems theory
Daniel Strauss
Ab stract The Sys tems The ory is a com plex the ory (yet it is not iden ti cal to re cent the o ries of com plex ity). The in ten tion of this qual i fi ca tion is to dem on strate that the concept of a sys tem is a com plex ba sic con cept of sci en tific think ing. This means that it is de fined in terms of var i ous el e men tary ba sic con cepts brought to gether in its ex pli ca tion. The def i ni tion given by Von Bertalanffy to the con cept of a sys tem em ploys con cep tual el e ments com ing from at least five prom i nent con-cep tual clus ters. In or der to high light the na ture and in ter re la tions be tween these clus ters this ar ti cle fo cuses upon pe ren nial philo soph i cal is sues which pres ent them selves within the def i ni tion of a sys tem. They are those of sta bil ity and change, the one and the many (unity and mul ti plic ity), the whole and its parts, and the re la tion be tween the ma te rial and the vi tal. An anal y sis of the in ter re la-tions be tween these clus ters pro vides the ba sis for an as sess ment of the scope and lim i ta tions Von Bertalanffy's con cept of a sys tem. Introduction The in vi ta tion to par tic i pate in the Forty-Sixth Meet ing of the In ter na tional So ci ety for the Sys tems Sci ences con tains three sig nif i cant state ments: (i) Sta bil ity and change are fre quently iden ti fied as the two most sig nif i cant (and ob-vi ously in ter re lated) fea tures of twenty-first cen tury op er a tions, or gani sa tions, com mu ni ties and so ci et ies, and their en vi ron ments. (ii) Sys tems think ing pro motes ho lism as its pri mary in tel lec tual strat egy for han dling com plex ity. (iii) Sys tems think ing has been fas ci nated by the ten sions be tween sta bil ity and change, and has em braced a pro cess phi los o phy in or der to grasp the way sys tems de velop over time. The se ri ous re ac tion of Mod ern Sys tems The ory to all atomistic modes of thought may serve as a start ing-point for our dis cus sion (cf. Strauss, 1999). Since Democritus in tro-duced his atomistic phi los o phy of na ture in An cient Greece the term at om ism ac quired both a nar row and a broader sense. In its nar row sense it in di cates the at tempt to explain the ma te rial world in terms of last in di vis i ble ma te rial el e ments (" at oms "). In the
There Is a Way to Make General Systems the Unifying Framework of the Sciences
Vincent Vesterby
From Bertalanffy to Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity
Vincent Vesterby
When Bertalanffy advocated a new scientific discipline called general system theory, this generalist mode of understanding was to be based on the isomorphism of laws, principles, and models in the different sciences, and on structural uniformities (isomorphies) in the subject matters of those sciences. There is a conceptual shift in Bertalanffy’s work from the logico-mathematical mode to a deeper more complex understanding. There is a corresponding shift in the understanding of isomorphies from the isomorphy of laws and principles to the isomorphy of qualities of real systems. The recognition of isomorphies in real situations and systems has resulted in the creation of the modern generalist mode of understanding and from there the development of discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity. This paper gives an introduction to this form of transdisciplinarity, and explains how this mode of understanding naturally develops a universal transdisciplinary language.
Systems Research and Behavioral Science
Ludwig von Bertalanffy and his enduring relevance: Celebrating 50years General System Theory
2019 •
Gert Verschraegen
International Journal of General Systems
On the history of Ludwig von Bertalanffy's “General Systemology”, and on its relationship to cybernetics. Part 1
2007 •
David POUVREAU
Exploring unity through diversity, vol. 1
The dialectical tragedy of the concept of wholeness: Ludwig von Bertalanffy's biography revisited. By David Pouvreau, in BCSSS book series: exploring unity through diversity, volume 1, edited by W. Hofkirchner. ISCE Publishing: Litchfield park, AZ, 2009, paper back, 264 pp., ISBN 13: 978-0-981703...
2009 •
David POUVREAU
Fundamental Theories of Physics
The system of theories
Holger Lyre
