The Kingdom of Circular Processes: The Logical Foundations of Systems Thinking

Abstract

The emergence of systems thinking was a profound revolution in the history of Western scientific thought. The belief that in very complex system the behavior of the whole can be understood entirely from the properties of its parts is central to the Cartesian paradigm. This was Descartes's celebrated method of analytic thinking, which has been an essential characteristic of modern scientific thought. In the analytic, or reductionist, approach, the parts themselves cannot be analyzed any further, except by reducing them to still smaller parts. Indeed, Western science has been progressing in that way, and at each step there has been a level of fundamental constituents that could not be analyzed any further. The great shock of twentieth-century science has been that systems cannot be understood by analysis. The properties of the parts are not intrinsic properties but can be understood only within the context of the larger whole. [. . .] In the new systems thinking, the metaphor of knowledge as a building is being replaced by that of the network. As we perceive reality as a network of relationships, our descriptions, too, form an interconnected network of concepts and models in which there are no foundations. For most scientists such a view of knowledge as a network with no firm foundations is extremely unsettling, and today it is by no means generally accepted. But as the network approach expands throughout the scientific community, the idea of knowledge as a network will undoubtedly find increasing acceptance (Capra 1996). It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong (Richard Feynman). Systems Thinking – introduced by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (Senge 1990) – is one of the most powerful tools of knowledge and understanding, since it teaches us to devise coherent and sense-making models of the world that are among the most effective in permitting ourselves and our descendants and fellow beings to improve our intelligence and construct our existence. Due to its intrinsic logic, which observes a world of variables and of variations, interconnected by causal loops that form a system, Systems Thinking considers dynamic systems of any kind in any field, building models of a world of incessant movement in continual transformation and evolution, allowing us to describe and simulate the forces and interrelationships that shape the behaviour of the world. P. Mella, Systems Thinking, Perspectives in Business Culture, DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-2565-3_1, # Springer-Verlag Italia 2012