Systems thinking

{{Main|Systems theory#History}}

The term system is polysemic: Robert Hooke (1674) used it in multiple senses, in his System of the World,{{rp|p.24}} but also in the sense of the Ptolemaic system versus the Copernican system{{rp|450}} of the relation of the planets to the fixed starsJon Voisey Universe Today [https://www.universetoday.com/159885/the-historic-discussion-of-ptolemys-star-catalog/ (14 Oct 2022) Scholarly History of Ptolemy’s Star Catalog Index] which are cataloged in Hipparchus' and Ptolemy's Star catalog.Jessica Lightfoot Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 57 (2017) 935–9672017 [https://www.scribd.com/document/397984078/Hipparchus-Commentary-on-Aratus-and-Eudoxus-Introduction-pdf Hipparchus Commentary On Aratus and Eudoxus ] Hooke's claim was answered in magisterial detail by Newton's (1687) Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Book three, The System of the WorldNewton, Isaac (1687) Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica{{rp|Book three}} (that is, the system of the world is a physical system).Hooke, Robert [https://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ECHOdocuView?url=/mpiwg/online/permanent/library/XXTBUC3U/pageimg&pn=25&mode=imagepath (1674) An attempt to prove the motion of the earth from observations ]

Newton's approach, using dynamical systems continues to this day.{{cite journal | last=Marchal | first=J. H. | title=On the Concept of a System | journal=Philosophy of Science | publisher=[Cambridge University Press, The University of Chicago Press, Philosophy of Science Association] | volume=42 | issue=4 | year=1975 | issn=0031-8248 | jstor=187223 | pages=448–468 | doi=10.1086/288663 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/187223 | access-date=2024-05-31| url-access=subscription }} as reprinted in Gerald Midgely (ed.) (2002) Systems thinking vol One In brief, Newton's equations (a system of equations) have methods for their solution.

File:Ideal feedback model.svg.]]

By 1824, the Carnot cycle presented an engineering challenge, which was how to maintain the operating temperatures of the hot and cold working fluids of the physical plant.Sadi Carnot (1824) Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire In 1868, James Clerk Maxwell presented a framework for, and a limited solution to, the problem of controlling the rotational speed of a physical plant.James Clerk Maxwell (1868) On Governors 12 pages Maxwell's solution echoed James Watt's (1784) centrifugal moderator (denoted as element Q) for maintaining (but not enforcing) the constant speed of a physical plant (that is, Q represents a moderator, but not a governor, by Maxwell's definition).Otto Mayr

[https://www.jstor.org/stable/229816 (1971) Maxwell and the Origins of Cybernetics] Isis, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Winter, 1971), pp. 424-444 (21 pages){{efn|name=stabilityOfSolution|1=A solution to the equations for a dynamical system can be afflicted by instability or oscillation.The Royal Society of Edinburgh [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8MFOoa61k4&t=150s (2016) Celebrating Maxwell's Genius and Legacy: Prof Rodolphe Sepulchre]{{rp|7:33}} The Governor: A corrective action against error can solve the dynamical equation by integrating the error.{{rp|29:44}}Karl Johan Åström and Richard M. Murray (2021) [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691193984/feedback-systems Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers, Second Edition] }}

Maxwell's approach, which linearized the equations of motion of the system, produced a tractable method of solution.{{rp|428–429}} Norbert Wiener identified this approach as an influence on his studies of cybernetics{{efn|name=seeSystemScience |1="cybernetics: see system science.";{{rp|135}} "system science: —the systematized knowledge of systems"{{rp|583}} }} during World War II and Wiener even proposed treating some subsystems under investigation as black boxes.Peter Galison [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1343893 (1994) The Ontology of the Enemy: Norbert Wiener and the Cybernetic Vision] Critical Inquiry, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 228–266 (39 pages) JSTOR{{rp|242}} Methods for solutions of the systems of equations then become the subject of study, as in feedback control systems, in stability theory, in constraint satisfaction problems, the unification algorithm, type inference, and so forth.

:"So, how do we change the structure of systems to produce more of what we want and less of that which is undesirable? ... MIT’s Jay Forrester likes to say that the average manager can ... guess with great accuracy where to look for leverage points—places in the system where a small change could lead to a large shift in behavior".Donella Meadows, (2008) Thinking In Systems: A Primer{{rp|146}}— Donella Meadows, (2008) Thinking In Systems: A Primer p.145 {{efn|name=overview|1= Donella Meadows, Thinking In Systems: A PrimerDonella H. Meadows [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_lOoomRTA (1977) A Philosophical Look at System Dynamics] 53:18 Overview, in video clips: Chapter 1Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBFpasY2Gd8 Thinking in Systems, Key Ideas (Ch. 1)] Chapter 2, part 1Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJLm5uq_QV8&t=37s Thinking in Systems, Ch. 2: Types of System Dynamics 2a] Chapter 2, part 2Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwUC7LlqAjI Thinking in Systems, Ch. 2, Part 2: Limiting Factors in Systems 2b] Chapter 3Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qOc_0DMqaA Thinking in Systems, Ch. 3: Resilience, Self-Organization and Hierarchy 3] Chapter 4Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHvtERyYvJU Thinking in Systems, Ch. 4: Why Systems Surprise Us 4] Chapter 5Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYSFvq8sr7A Thinking in Systems, Ch. 5: System Traps 5] Chapter 6Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qL4KxqbrFM Thinking in Systems, Ch. 6: Leverage Points in Systems 6] Chapter 7Ashley Hodgson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8QYU2JL8no Thinking in Systems, Ch. 7: Living with Systems 7] }}

File:System_boundary2.svg

File:OpenSystemRepresentation.svg

{{anchor|System}}{{quote|...What is a system? A system is a set of things ... interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. ... But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is seldom simple in the real world|Donella Meadows{{rp|2}}}}

{{quote|[a system] is "an integrated whole even though composed of diverse, interacting, specialized structures and subjunctions"|IEEE (1972)IEEE (1972) Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms{{rp|582}}}}

• {{anchor|subsystem}}Subsystems serve as part of a larger system, but each comprises a system in its own right. Each frequently can be described reductively, with properties obeying its own laws, such as Newton's System of the World, in which entire planets, stars, and their satellites can be treated, sometimes in a scientific way as dynamical systems, entirely mathematically, as demonstrated by Johannes Kepler's equation (1619) for the orbit of Mars before Newton's Principia appeared in 1687.
• {{anchor|black box}}Black boxes are subsystems whose operation can be characterized by their inputs and outputs, without regard to further detail.{{rp|87–88}}Wiener, Norbert; Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, MIT Press, 1961, ISBN 0-262-73009-X, page xi

• Political systems were recognized as early as the millennia before the common era.Aristotle, PoliticsJS Maloy (2009) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40208102 The Aristotelianism of Locke's Politics] Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 70, No. 2 (April 2009), pp. 235–257 (23 pages)
• Biological systems were recognized in Aristotle's lagoon ca. 350 BCE.Aristotle, History of Animals{{cite web |last1=Lennox |first1=James |title=Aristotle's Biology |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-biology/ |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=28 November 2014 |date=27 July 2011}}
• Economic systems were recognized by 1776.Adam Smith [https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/adam-smith/the-wealth-of-nations/text (1776) The Wealth of Nations] Book IV refers to commercial, and mercantile systems, as well as to systems of political enonomy
• Social systems were recognized by the 19th and 20th centuries of the common era.Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of CapitalismTalcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action
• Radar systems were developed in World War II in subsystem fashion; they were made up of transmitter, receiver, power supply, and signal processing subsystems, to defend against airborne attacks.MIT Radiation Laboratory, MIT Radiation Laboratory Series, 28 volumes
• Dynamical systems of ordinary differential equations were shown to exhibit stable behavior given a suitable Lyapunov control function by Aleksandr Lyapunov in 1892.Richard Pates [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXAx_641FPM (2021) What is a Lyapunov function]
• Thermodynamic systems were treated as early as the eighteenth century, in which it was discovered that heat could be created without limit, but that for closed systems, laws of thermodynamics could be formulated.{{cite book | authorlink=Ilya Prigogine|last=Prigogine | first=Ilya | year=1980 | title=From Being To Becoming | publisher=Freeman | isbn=0-7167-1107-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/frombeingtobecom00ipri }} 272 pages. Ilya Prigogine (1980) has identified situations in which systems far from equilibrium can exhibit stable behavior;Glansdorff, P., Prigogine, I. (1971). [https://books.google.com/books?id=vf9QAAAAMAAJ Thermodynamic Theory of Structure, Stability and Fluctuations], London: Wiley-Interscience {{ISBN|0-471-30280-5}} once a Lyapunov function has been identified, future and past can be distinguished, and scientific activity can begin.{{rp|212–213}}

{{anchor|Resilience}} Living systems are resilient, and are far from equilibrium.{{rp|Ch.3}} Homeostasis is the analog to equilibrium, for a living system; the concept was described in 1849, and the term was coined in 1926.{{cite book |first=W.B. |last=Cannon |author-link=Walter Bradford Cannon |title=The Wisdom of the Body |pages=177–201 |year=1932 |publisher=W. W. Norton |location=New York}}{{cite book |language=fr |first=W. B. |last=Cannon |author-link=Walter Bradford Cannon |chapter=Physiological regulation of normal states: some tentative postulates concerning biological homeostatics |editor=A. Pettit|title=A Charles Riches amis, ses collègues, ses élèves |page=91 |publisher=Paris: Les Éditions Médicales |year=1926}}

{{anchor|Self-organization}} Resilient systems are self-organizing;{{efn|name=klirSystemScience |1=Abstract: [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4899-0718-9_1 "An inevitable prerequisite for this book, as implied by its title, is a presupposition that systems science is a legitimate field of scientific inquiry. It is self-evident that I, as the author of this book, consider this presupposition valid. Otherwise, clearly, I would not conceive of writing the book in the first place"]. —George J. Klir, "What Is Systems Science?" from Facets of Systems Science (1991) }}{{rp|Ch.3}} H T Odum [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.242.4882.1132 (25 Nov 1988) Self-Organization, Transformity and Information] Science Vol 242, Issue 4882 pp. 1132–1139 as reprinted by Gerald Midgley ed. (2002), Systems Thinking vol 2

{{anchor|Hierarchy}} The scope of functional controls is hierarchical, in a resilient system.{{rp|Ch.3}}

Frameworks and methodologies for systems thinking include:

• Critical systems heuristics:{{cite web|author=Werner Ulrich|url=https://projects.kmi.open.ac.uk/ecosensus/publications/ulrich_csh_intro.pdf|date=1987|title=A Brief Introduction to Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH)}} in particular, there can be twelve boundary categories for the systems when organizing one's thinking and actions.
• Critical systems thinking, including the E P I C approach.
• DSRP, a framework for systems thinking that attempts to generalise all other approaches.
• Ontology engineering of representation, formal naming and definition of categories, and the properties and the relations between concepts, data, and entities.
• Soft systems methodology, including the CATWOE approach and rich pictures.
• Systemic design, for example using the double diamond approach.
• System dynamics of stocks, flows, and internal feedback loops.
• Viable system model: uses 5 subsystems.

{{Portal|Systems science}}

• {{annotated link|Biogeochemistry}}
• {{annotated link|Conceptual systems}}
• {{annotated link|Management cybernetics}}
• {{annotated link|Operations research}}
• {{annotated link|Systems engineering}}
• {{annotated link|Industrial ecology}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• Russell L. Ackoff (1968) "General Systems Theory and Systems Research Contrasting Conceptions of Systems Science." in: Views on a General Systems Theory: Proceedings from the Second System Symposium, Mihajlo D. Mesarovic (ed.).
• A.C. Ehresmann, J.-P. Vanbremeersch (1987) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009282408780033 Hierarchical evolutive systems: A mathematical model for complex systems]" Bulletin of Mathematical Biology Volume 49, Issue 1, Pages 13–50
• NJTA Kramer & J de Smit (1977) Systems thinking: Concepts and Notions, Springer. 148 pages
• A. H. Louie (November 1983) "[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02458830 Categorical system theory]" Bulletin of Mathematical Biology volume 45, pages 1047–1072
• DonellaMeadows.org [https://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/ Systems Thinking Resources]
• Gerald Midgley (ed.) (2002) Systems Thinking, SAGE Publications. 4 volume set: 1,492 pages [https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/systems-thinking/book225004#contents List of chapter titles]

• Robert Rosen. (1958) “[http://www.few.vu.nl/~rplanque/Onderwijs/MathBio/PapersForProject/Rosen.pdf The Representation of Biological Systems from the Standpoint of the Theory of Categories]". Bull. math. Biophys. 20, 317–342.
• Peter Senge, (1990) The Fifth Discipline

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