Systems thinking explained

Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts.[1] [2] It has been used as a way of exploring and developing effective action in complex contexts,[3] enabling systems change.[4] [5] Systems thinking draws on and contributes to systems theory and the system sciences.[6]

History

Ptolemaic system versus the Copernican system

The term system is polysemic: Robert Hooke (1674) used it in multiple senses, in his System of the World, but also in the sense of the Ptolemaic system versus the Copernican system of the relation of the planets to the fixed stars[7] which are cataloged in Hipparchus' and Ptolemy's Star catalog.[8] Hooke's claim was answered in magisterial detail by Newton's (1687) Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Book three, The System of the World[9] (that is, the system of the world is a physical system).[10]

Newton's approach, using dynamical systems continues to this day.[11] In brief, Newton's equations (a system of equations) have methods for their solution.

Feedback control systems

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.[12] 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.[13] 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).[14]

Maxwell's approach, which linearized the equations of motion of the system, produced a tractable method of solution. Norbert Wiener identified this approach as an influence on his studies of cybernetics during World War II and Wiener even proposed treating some subsystems under investigation as black boxes.[15] 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.

Applications

"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".[16]Donella Meadows, (2008) p.145

Characteristics

Particular systems

Systems far from equilibrium

Living systems are resilient, and are far from equilibrium.[16] Homeostasis is the analog to equilibrium, for a living system; the concept was described in 1849, and the term was coined in 1926.[29] [30]

Resilient systems are self-organizing; [31]

The scope of functional controls is hierarchical, in a resilient system.

Frameworks and methodologies

Frameworks and methodologies for systems thinking include:

References

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Anderson, Virginia, & Johnson, Lauren (1997). Systems Thinking Basics: From Concepts to Causal Loops. Waltham, Mass: Pegasus Comm., Inc.
  2. Magnus Ramage and Karen Shipp. 2009. Systems Thinkers. Springer.
  3. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285442/12-1043-introduction-to-systems-thinking-gse-seminar.pdf Introduction to Systems thinking
  4. Sarah York, Rea Lavi, Yehudit Judy Dori, and MaryKay Orgill Applications of Systems Thinking in STEM Education J. Chem. Educ. 2019, 96, 12, 2742–2751 Publication Date:May 14, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00261
  5. Web site: School of System Change: Why Systems Change? . 2022-12-06 . School of System Change: Learning to lead change in a complex world . en.
  6. Systemic Thinking 101 Russell L Ackoff From Mechanistic to Systemic thinking, also awal street journal (2016) Systems Thinking Speech by Dr. Russell Ackoff 1:10:57
  7. Jon Voisey Universe Today (14 Oct 2022) Scholarly History of Ptolemy’s Star Catalog Index
  8. Jessica Lightfoot Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 57 (2017) 935–9672017 Hipparchus Commentary On Aratus and Eudoxus
  9. Newton, Isaac (1687) Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
  10. Hooke, Robert (1674) An attempt to prove the motion of the earth from observations
  11. Marchal . J. H. . On the Concept of a System . Philosophy of Science . [Cambridge University Press, The University of Chicago Press, Philosophy of Science Association] . 42 . 4 . 1975 . 00318248 . 187223 . 448–468 . 2024-05-31. as reprinted in Gerald Midgely (ed.) (2002) Systems thinking vol One
  12. Sadi Carnot (1824) Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire
  13. James Clerk Maxwell (1868) On Governors 12 pages
  14. Otto Mayr (1971) Maxwell and the Origins of Cybernetics Isis, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Winter, 1971), pp. 424-444 (21 pages)
  15. Peter Galison (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
  16. [Donella Meadows]
  17. Wiener, Norbert; , MIT Press, 1961, ISBN 0-262-73009-X, page xi
  18. Aristotle, Politics
  19. JS Maloy (2009) The Aristotelianism of Locke's Politics Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 70, No. 2 (April 2009), pp. 235–257 (23 pages)
  20. Aristotle, History of Animals
  21. Web site: Lennox . James . Aristotle's Biology . Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Stanford University . 28 November 2014 . 27 July 2011.
  22. [Adam Smith]
  23. [Max Weber]
  24. [Talcott Parsons]
  25. [MIT Radiation Laboratory]
  26. Richard Pates (2021) What is a Lyapunov function
  27. Book: Prigogine, Ilya . Ilya Prigogine

    . Ilya Prigogine. 1980 . From Being To Becoming . Freeman . 0-7167-1107-9 . registration . 272 pages.

  28. Glansdorff, P., Prigogine, I. (1971). Thermodynamic Theory of Structure, Stability and Fluctuations, London: Wiley-Interscience
  29. Book: Cannon, W.B. . Walter Bradford Cannon . The Wisdom of the Body . 177–201 . 1932 . W. W. Norton . New York.
  30. Book: Cannon, W. B. . fr . Walter Bradford Cannon . Physiological regulation of normal states: some tentative postulates concerning biological homeostatics . A. Pettit. A Charles Riches amis, ses collègues, ses élèves . 91 . Paris: Les Éditions Médicales . 1926.
  31. H T Odum (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
  32. Web site: Werner Ulrich. A Brief Introduction to Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH). 1987.