The Modern Dilemma and the Challenge to Systems Thinkers

Abstract

In a world with an exploding human population and declining non-renewable resources, three kinds of intellectuals weigh in as inquirers into the human prospect. Two agree that the European-North American-Japanese path of development cannot be sustained. The third scholar studiously avoids being drawn into the discussion as he advances a recipe for right livelihood, which ignores economic considerations by advancing a moral argument. Systems thinking, a form of reductionism, it is argued, must remain subordinate to a dialectical approach to solving our problems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.