The Systems View of the World (Laszlo, 1996)

The Systems View of the World (Laszlo, 1996)

A Holistic Vision for Our TIme

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fundamental to understand modern science and philosophy, August 28, 1997
By A Customer

Systems thinking is more than another new field of scientific and philosophical research. It leads to a new world view, integrating the sciences of nature and man. It is a world view for our times, explaining some some of our most cherished successes and some of our most distressing problems, and showing ways to resume progress toward new achievements. Knowledge of systems thinking is a key to understand modern developments in areas such as physics, business management, ecology, politics, natural resources, etc.

Ervin Laszlo is one of the most important contributors to the development of systems science and philosophy. With "The Systems View of the World" he achieved a remarkably accurate condensation, in a hundred clearly written and pleasantly readable pages, of the fundamental ideas of systems thinking.

The book begins contrasting the systems view of the world, based on integration an understanding of relationships, with the atomistic view of the world, based on decomposition and understanding of parts. He proceeds presenting the concept of system, leading the reader through a series of distinctions and examples. It is interesting to remark that Laszlo does not present a definition of system, coherently with the idea that system is a basic, primitive concept.

Laszlo follows with the explanation of the systems view of nature, summarized in four propositions, which are developed and exemplified:
1. Natural systems are wholes with irreducible properties;
2. Natural systems maintain themselves in a changing environment;
3. Natural systems create themselves in response to self-creativity in other systems;
4. Natural systems are coordinating interfaces in nature's holarchy.

The book's final part deals wit the system's view of ourselves. To do this, Laszlo begins from our cosmic origins, proceeding to the appearance of matter, life, consciousness and finally culture. He emphasizes the importance of values and explains why even traditional values, in spite of their permanent character, must be reformulated to meet the requirements of our times. Laszlo shows how the systems view of the world has a place for freedom and differentiation in an integrated world. He finishes the book stressing the role of religion in human life and proposes that the systems view of the world may offer some openings for conciliation of science with the different religious traditions.

p.3"There is an emerging paradigm - a new way of ordering the information we already have and are likely to get in the foreseeable future. Let us turn now to a consideration of this new way of looking at the world, and the reasons why it is preferable to the atomistic method of compartmentalized specialization."

p.4"Instead of looking at one thing at a time, and noting its behavior when exposed to one other thing, the sciences now look at a number of different and interacting things and note their behavior as a whole under diverse influences."

p.29"what makes a group what it is, is not just its membership, but the mutual relations of the members."

p.35"Of course, drastic changes in the environment may be beyond the adaptive capacity of any organism."

p.35"The more delicate organisms require advance warning of threatening conditions and the skill to interpret the relevant sense signals. They must be able to predict to some extent what is likely to happen (as a rabbit can predict that he is likely to be attacked when he smells a fox), and see about taking preventive measures.

We humans, more than any other organism, have greatly refined such predictive and interpretive skills."

p.36"Humans can now take care of all their survival needs by using their predictive and manipulative capacities.

The living organism keeps itself in running condition as long as it can, and performs repairs if it gets damaged... The state maintained in and by organisms ... is a dynamic balance of energies and substances, always poised for action... The remarkable feature of the organism is that, unlike a watch, it keeps itself wound up"

p.53"There are strains and stresses in this world which traverse the globe and tax the adaptive capacities of the individual, creating what Toffler calls future shock."

p.58"A holarchically* (rather than hierarchically) integrated system is not a passive system, committed to the status quo. It is a dynamic and adaptive entity, reflecting in its own functioning the patterns of change over all levels of the system." [ * JLJ - A holarchy, in the terminology of Arthur Koestler, is a hierarchy of holons – where a holon is both a part and a whole. The term was coined in Koestler's 1967 book The Ghost in the Machine. The term, spelled holoarchy, is also used extensively by American philosopher and writer Ken Wilber.]

p.82"It calls for a dynamic process of integration and adjustment, creating conditions for the actualization of the full potential there is in each of us"

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