Systems

Abstract

The philosophically-oriented framework of parts and wholes can be translated into the scientifically oriented theory of general systems. In this sense the whole is understood as a system, and general systems theory becomes the scientific theory of everything. To grasp the novelty of the systemic position, consider the principle of composition, one of the fundamental assumptions of classical science. According to the principle of composition, a given entity, under analytical investigation is decomposed into parts. The guiding idea is that the entity is literally made of these parts, can be reconstructed from them, and decomposition into parts misses no relevant information. This assumption is universally valid, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled: (1) the interactions among the parts do not exist or are negligible, (2) the relations describing the behavior of the parts are linear, (3) the whole resulting from the parts does not perform any functional behavior. These are very severe restrictions; very few if any natural systems meet them. Systems in general do not meet these conditions. One may describe the difference between the two cases as the difference between not organized complexity, well-represented by classic physics, and organized complexity, well-represented by biology. Fundamental for organized complexities is the concept of hierarchical order, according to which systems are decomposable into sub-systems, and these into further sub-sub-systems. One cannot fail to note that the starting point of this new vision is the system (the whole), and that systems are decomposed into sub-systems, not into elements or atomic components.