Introduction to grey systems theory

Abstract

On the basis of dividing the spectrum of scientific and technological endeavors into finer sections, the overall development of modern science has shown the tendency of synthesis at a higher level. This higher level synthesis has caused the appearance of the various studies of systems science with their specific methodological and epistemological significance. Systems science reveals the much deeper and more intrinsic connections and interlockings of objects and events and has greatly enriched the overall progress of science and technology. Many of the historically difficult problems in different scientific fields have been resolved successfully along with the appearance of systems science and its specific branches. And because of the emergence of various new areas in systems science, our understanding of nature and the laws that govern objective evolutions has been gradually deepened. At the end of the 1940s, there appeared systems theory, information theory, cybernetics. Toward the end of 1960s and the start of 1970s, there appeared the theory of dissipative structures, synergics, catastrophe, and bifurcations. During the middle and toward the end of the 1970s, there appeared one by one such new transfield and interfiled theories of systems science as the ultracircular theory, dynamic systems, pansystems, etc. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.