Systems philosophy is a discipline aimed at constructing a new philosophy (in the sense of worldview) by using systems concepts. The discipline was first described by Ervin Laszlo in his 1972 book Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought.Laszlo, E. (1972). Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers. . It has been described as the "reorientation of thought and world view ensuing from the introduction of "systems" as a new scientific paradigm".Bertalanffy, L. von, (1976). General System Theory. New York: George Braziller, pp. xxi
Overview Soon after Laszlo founded systems philosophy it was placed in context by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, one of the founders of general system theory, when he categorized three domains within systemics namely: "Systems science", which is concerned with "scientific exploration and theory of "systems" in the various sciences...and general system theory as doctrine of principles applying to all systems";Bertalanffy, L. von, (1976). General System Theory. Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, pp. xix "Systems technology", which is concerned with "the problems arising in modern technology and society, comprising both the "hardware" of computers, automation self-regulating machinery etc., and the "software" of new theoretical developments and disciplines";Bertalanffy, L. von, (1976). General System Theory. Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, pp. xx and "Systems philosophy", which is concerned with "the new philosophy of nature" which regards the world as a great organization" that is "organismic" rather than "mechanistic" in nature.Bertalanffy, L. von, (1976). General System Theory. Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, pp. xxi
Systems philosophy consists of four main areas: "Systems ontology", which is concerned "with what is meant by "system" and how systems are realized at various levels of the world of observation";Bertalanffy, L. von, (1976). General System Theory. Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, pp. xxi "Systems paradigms", which is concerned with developing worldviews which "takes [humankind] as one species of concrete and actual system, embedded in encompassing natural hierarchies of likewise concrete and actual physical, biological, and social systems";Laszlo, E. (1972). Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, p. 298.This is called "systems epistemology" in Von Bertalanffy, L., (1976). General System Theory. Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, pp. xxiiThese are called "systems philosophies" in Bahm, A. J. (1981). Five Types of Systems Philosophy. International Journal of General Systems, 6(4), 233–237. "Systems axiology", which is concerned with developing models of systems that involve "humanistic concerns", and views "symbols, values, social entities and cultures" as "something very "real"" and having an "embeddedness in a cosmic order of hierarchies";in Bertalanffy, L. von, (1976). General System Theory. Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, pp. xxii–xxiii and "Applied systems philosophy", which is concerned with using the insights from the other branches of systems philosophy to solve practical problems, especially social and philosophical ones.Laszlo, E. (1972). Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, p. 12: "[Systems philosophy's] data come from the empirical sciences; its problems come from the history of philosophy; and its concepts come from modern systems research."
The term "systems philosophy" is often used as a convenient shorthand to refer to "the philosophy of systems",See, e.g., http://www.pdx.edu/sysc/courses-sysc-521621-systems-philosophy but this usage can be misleading. The philosophy of systems is in fact merely the element of systems philosophy called "systems ontology" by von BertalanffyBertalanffy, L. von, (1976). General System Theory. Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, pp. xxi and "systems metaphysics" by Laszlo.Laszlo, E. (1972). Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, p. 295. Systems ontology provides important grounding for systems thinking but does not encompass the essential focus of systems philosophy, which is about articulating a worldview grounded in systems perspectives and humanistic concerns.
Origin and development of systems philosophy
The founding of systems philosophy
Systems philosophy was founded by Ervin Laszlo in 1972 with his book Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought.Laszlo, E. (1972). Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. Gordon & Breach. The Foreword was written by Ludwig von Bertalanffy.
"Systems philosophy", in Ervin Laszlo's sense of the term, means using the systems perspective to model the nature of reality, and to use this to solve important human problems (Laszlo, 1972). Laszlo developed the idea behind systems philosophy independently of von Bertalanffy's work on General System Theory (published in 1968), but they met before Introduction to Systems Philosophy was published and the decision to call the new discipline "systems philosophy" was their joint one.Laszlo, E. (2004). Science and the Akashic field: an integral theory of everything. Rochester Vt.: Inner Traditions. p.163 Writing Introduction to Systems Philosophy took five years, and in his autobiography Laszlo calls it "my major work".Laszlo, E. (2011) Simply Genius! And Other Tales From My Life. London: Hay House
Laszlo's "great idea", that made systems philosophy possible, was that the existence of a general system theory that captures the "patterns" that recur across the Systemics, who themselves capture "patterns" that recur across the specialized disciplines, entails that the world is organised as a whole, and thus has an underlying unity.Laszlo, E. (1972). Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. Gordon & Breach. pp. 8–10, 18–21. In this light, nature's special domains (as characterized by the specialized sciences) are contingent expressions or arrangements or projections of an underlying intelligibly ordered reality.Laszlo, E. (1972). Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. Gordon & Breach. p. 19. If the nature of this underlying unity and the way it conditions phenomenal reality could be understood, it would provide a powerful aid to solving pressing sociological problems and answering deep philosophical questions.
In the subsequent years, systems philosophy has been developed in four important ways, discussed below.
Laszlo and evolutionary futures
The first development was due to Ervin Laszlo himself, and is grounded in the concern that the way in which global resources are exploited does not take global systemic effects into account, and appears likely to have catastrophic global consequences. Work in this area is focused on developing models and interventions that can bring about human thriving in a sustainable way on a global scale. Laszlo promotes work in this area through the Club of Budapest International Foundation, of which he is the founder and President, and the journal World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, of which he is the editor.
Ozbekhan and the global problematique
A contemporary of Laszlo, Hasan OzbekhanOzbekhan, H. (1969). Toward a General Theory of Planning. In E.. Jantsch (ed.), Perspectives of Planning. Paris: OECD Publications. in the original proposal to the Club of RomeOzbekhan, H. (1970). The Predicament of Mankind: A Quest for Structured Responses to Growing World-Wide Complexities and Uncertainties. www.redesignresearch.com/docs/ThePredicamentofMankind.pdf identified 49 Continuous Critical Problems (CCPs) that intertwine to generate the Global Problematique. This work was shoved aside by the Club as too humanistic and it adopted the system dynamics approach of Jay Forrester. This decision resulted in the volume The Limits to Growth.Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D., and Randers, J. (1972). The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe Books.
Ozbekhan sat down with Alexander Christakis and revisited the 49 CCPs in 1995 using the methodology of Structured Dialogic Design (SDD) which was not available in 1970.Flanagan, T. and Bausch, K. (2011). A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures: A Workbook for Addressing the Global Problematique. Riverdale, GA: Ongoing Emergence Press. They generated an influence map that identified leverage points for alleviating the global problematique. Subsequently, an online class at Flinders University generated an influence map that bore remarkable similarities to that produced by Ozbekhan and Christakis.Bausch, K.C. et al. (2012) Sustainable Global Democracy through a Group Decision-Making Process. Journal of Globalization Studies, vol.3, Number 1.Flanagan T. et al. (2012) In 2013, Reynaldo Trevino and Bethania Arango aligned the 15 Global Challenges of the Millennium Project with the 49 CCPs and generated actions that that shows the influence among the challenges and identifies actions for addressing the leverage points.Trevino, R. and Arango, B. (2013) Strategic Articulation of Actions to Cope with the Huge Challenges of Our World Today, vol.1 of the monograph series A Social Systems Approach to Global Problems. Cincinnati: Ongoing Emergence Press
Apostel and worldview integration
The second strand was inspired by Leo Apostel, and is grounded in the concern that disciplinary worldviews are becoming increasingly fragmented, thus undermining the potential for the inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary work required to address the world's pressing social, cultural and economic problems. This effort was initiated via the publication in 1994 by Apostel et al. of the book Worldviews: from fragmentation to integration.Aerts, D., Apostel, L., De Moor, B., Hellemans, S., Maex, E., Van Belle, H., & Van der Veken, J. (1994). Worldviews: from fragmentation to integration. Brussels: VUB Press. Apostel promoted this agenda by forming the Worldviews Group and founding what is now the Leo Apostel Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in the Free University of Brussels. The work of these units is focused on developing systematic models of the structure and nature of worldviews and using this to promote work towards a unified perspective on the world.Aerts, D., D'Hooghe, B., Pinxten, R., & Wallerstein, I. (Eds.). (2011). Worldviews, Science And Us: Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Worlds, Cultures And Society – Proceedings Of The Workshop On Worlds, Cultures And Society. World Scientific Publishing Company.Aerts, D., Apostel, L., De Moor, B., Hellemans, S., Maex, E., Van Belle, H., & Van der Veken, J. (1995). Perspectives on the World: An Interdisciplinary Reflection. VUB Press.Vidal, C. (2008). Wat is een wereldbeeld? [What is a worldview?]. In H. Van Belle & J. Van der Veken (Eds.), Nieuwheid denken. De wetenschappen en het creatieve aspect van de werkelijkheid [Novel thoughts: Science and the Creative Aspect of Reality]. Acco Uitgeverij.
Midgley and systemic intervention