The systems view of the world;: The natural philosophy of the new developments in the sciences 0807606375, 9780807606377

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$2.45

ERVIN LASZLO Author of Introduction

to

Systems Philosophy

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2011

http://www.archive.org/details/systemsviewofwOOIasz

^USqa

—

By

gain some

natural systems according to our hypothesis.

f

i

categories

use suborganic,

assessment of the validity of the properties characterizing

„

yJ

\

specific

of organization rather than to essence or substance.

In general, then, by suborganic

rO N(f

shall

and supraorganic, meaning by these

organic,

modes

more usual

instead of the

organic,

its

Are

there entities in the suborganic world

whose

£\

properties as wholes cannot be reduced to the properties of

^

their separable parts? This

,J

careful thinking

is

is

our

needed right

first

question,

at the outset.

and some

Atoms were

taken as the indivisible basic building blocks of physical reality until the

\

jT\

*i

$* V*/ P

.

V.

O

0/ Ml) \

that

advent of modern atomic theory, which

atoms are complex and

divisible.

Their elemen-

P art i c l es were next thought to be indivisible, but they, too, turned out to be capable of scattering into quanta

tary

of

radiant

particles.

energies

corresponding to several subsidiary

In the search for the genuine rock bottom of

material reality, the latest candidates are the most unmatter-

^ '

showed

*>

\

.y

like "quarks." exist

They are not

in other than

thought to constitute the particles

known

isolable,

composite

many

nor are they known to

states,

which they are

nucleonic and electronic

to the contemporary physicist.

clear whether they exist in nature at

30

in

all.

And

it is

not

Hence bas ically

The Systems View of Nature

jvehave but ofjnatter,

On

if

the vaguest understanding of the ultimate units

indeed there are any such things.

the other hand,

crete structures.

properties

Each

we do know

a whole has certain properties.

atom are not reducible

we took

And

it),

certain

the properties of the

the neutron, proton,

we would

and the atom as

to the properties of all

hydrogen atom and recombined them chances are

exist as dis-

atom has

(some, such as spin, so abstract that only a

mathematical definition can be given of

together. If

atoms

that

constituent of an

in

its

parts

added

and electron of a

any arbitrary way,

not get a hydrogen atom at

properties of the latter equal the properties of

The

all.

parts plus

its

These

the exact relations of the parts within the structure.

are usually expressed in terms of fields of force potentials

(such as electronic and nuclear fields). Microphysics would

be a simpler science indeed piles of

if

atoms were mere heaps,

rubbish or streams of raindrops. But such

like

not the

is

/f>M?J / *s* Jlfjfas \ Thermodynamics^ It

0/rru

we

run and keep

en-

The Systems View of Nature tropy, or

its

negative,

is

a measure of the energy available to

way

a system in virtue of the

For example, a house with a supplyoTelectricity

is

full

components are organized. tank of heating

so organized that

able to heat and light tric

its

itself

oil

and good

has energy avail-

it

and operate a number of

elec-

appliances. But the heating oil (as well as the electricity

and

stored in the batteries) can be exhausted,

in time the

house will grow cold and dark. Hence most houses are supplied with regular deliveries of fuel oil and with a con-

tinuous input of electricity from a power source.

down

process of running

is

For now the house needs from the outside, and

it is

Fuel

side supplies last.

Then

the

postponed, but not eliminated. to import

oils

working energies

its

a question of

how

long the out-

are fossil fuels which were

generated a long time ago in the history of the earth by processes which resulted in the accumulation of reservoirs of

natural

oil

under the earth's surface. These can, of course,

be depleted. Electricity is

is

generated by burning coal, which

likewise an exhaustible fossil fuel, or

by some other

force,

such as a waterfall, being used to drive the generators. It is

a question of

how

long such forces are available for

Although some (such

the purposes.

as nuclear energies)

be available for a very long time, the point are_given in limitless supply. Eventually available

becomes cold and dark with

supposes that no more sunlight

—

import from space )

all

that

no energies

the free energies

on the surface of the earth can be used up and then

the house

indeed.

is

may

The

is

—

available,

finality.

(This pre-

a source of energy

we

an event a long way

off

principle states that within any given isolated

system energy stored in virtue of the organization of the

components

gets used

up and the system

gets correspond-

35

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD

The house

ingly disorganized.

as

an isolated system would

run down rather quickly. The house coupled to the power

much

supplies of a continent forms a system of a

with correspondingly longer

life

coupled with the earth-sun system

is

tremendous

But

reserves of energies.

vaster kind,

And

expectancy.

a house

a very vast system, with

such systems run

all

down eventually, however long it may take. Ordinary objects run down unless they

are fed energies

and repairs or replacements from the

outside.

physical systems cut off from other systems run

way

this

too.

But there are excepti ons

to the rule,

are found within the closed systems of

Law just

Entire

down

in

and these

which the Second

speaks. The Law is permissive: it does not determine how such a system runs down. It can do so very

unevenly. In fact

down on

it

is

quite possible that

the whole, while in

actually get

wound

some areas or

up. That

is,

it

should run

parts

it

should

there can be subsidiary

systems within the whole system, and these subsystems can get

more organized

Of

as time goes on, rather than less.

course, the rest of the system gets correspondingly depleted,

and the sum of the energies used up

more energy

is

used up than

is

is

always positive

The system as a parts become

generated.

whole gets disorganized, whereas some of

its

increasingly organized at the expense of the

though we used the

house to produce more

batteries.

available energies in the

new

The sum

of the electric

decreased, even

if

locally

down even

if

some

runs

36

it

We

batteries,

energy from the original ones to serve.

rest. It is

electricity stored in the batteries of

it

but use up more pre-

available to us has

has increased.

parts of

concentrate our

make them than we

power

as

our

The whole house

wind up.

The Systems View

of Nature

any given thing

If

condition,

it

to maintain itself in proper

must act as a subsystem within the

which defines that

is

its

energy supplies.

draws energies from

it

them up

in running

itself.

It

its

own

purposes.

It

must be so organized

environment, and burns

its

That

is,

it

must take

to that extent.

to run the subsystem

in sub-

can use

it

then puts out waste products in

the form of used-up substances, impoverishing

ment

system

total

stances which contain energies in a form which for

running

The

energies gained can be used

—something which

be paid for in terms of the

environ-

its

total

inevitably has to

supply of energy

carry out the necessary maintenance work. All this

—and

is

to

directly

involved in sustaining a subsystem over an appreciable

period of time. Like Alice, they must keep running just to stay in the

The

same

place.

particular configuration of parts

which

is

tem

called a "steady-state." It

is

and

relationships

maintained in a self-maintaining and repairing is

sys-

a state in which energies

are continually used to maintain the relationship of the parts

and keep them from collapsing

dynamic violate

state,

not a dead and inert one.

And

it

is

a

does not

any of the principles of the physical world, although

the question is

in decay. This

why such

peculiar local systems

come about

not answered by physics.

The

technical definition of a natural system

is

"open

system in a steady-state." Openness refers to the importexport activities of the system, which the

same

state.

place," that

Man

compose

is

his

is,

to maintain

its

it

needs to "stay in

own dynamic

an open natural system; so are the

steady-

cells that

body, and the ecologies and societies which

he constitutes jointly with his fellow

human

beings and

37

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD organisms. Hence

man

of natural systems.

when we

is

effectively

embedded be

(This situation will

discuss his future

and

his values.

)

in the

world

of significance

Let us review the

characteristics of various suborganic, organic,

and supra-

organic entities and see whether they do in fact manifest the properties outlined here.

The

(i)

basic system in the physical realm

Atoms may be

the atom.

is

clearly

stable or unstable. If they are

stable, the energies within their structure are so well inte-

grated that they balance each other and the atom maintains

space and time. Unstable atoms have dynamic

in

itself

instabilities, usually

sisting of

many

due to a very complex

structure, con-

protons in the nucleus and a corresponding

high number of electrons in the

shells.

Stable atoms are

usually considered closed systems: they do not exchange energies with their environment, although they are affected

by high energies and

heat.

Atoms

of this kind effectively

withstand the overall course of degradation of energy predicted by the Second

Law. They

own

internal forces balancing the atomic

structure.

The

structure are so vast relative to

arrest entropy within their

its

size that

forces can disrupt a stable atom. Since heat

few external is

one of the

forces that can penetrate the atom's boundaries, intense heat

—

as well as highly accelerated particles

forces

which can undo

stable atoms.

—

constitute external

Under such conditions

the energies binding the atomic nucleus are exceeded by the

energies introduced externally, and nuclear fission occurs.

In our nuclear devices such conditions have to be created artificially,

whereas they obtain constantly in the interior

of all shining stars, including the sun.

process

38

may be

One outcome

"nuclear transmutation"

:

of the

the conversion of

The Systems View

of Nature

one type of nuclear structure into another, with often several

making up one

nuclei of the former kind

Energies which do not energies in the

new

fit

of the newer.

into the configuration of balanced

structure are released.

They are

and account

radiations which maintain a star's luminosity for

its

light

and

heat.

The atom's behavior under tions intense

enough

conditions of "stress" (radia-

to penetrate the atom's boundaries but

not so high as to smash electron

bombardment

its

nucleus)

atom and permitted

wave

is

own

electrons.

extra energy from outside,

The

when

it

and that

it

readjusts to

of energy

form of one of this process:

atom becomes "excited" when

citation potential"

atom absorbs

quantum

structure, usually in the

Another descriptive term defines

said that the

energy)

directed toward an

to interact with it) the

the energy and ejects a corresponding its

remarkable. Under

is

(a descriptive term which defines a

process in which a particle or a

from

the

it

its

it is

absorbs the

radiates off the "exits

normal (ground-

state.

processes sketched here are not usually considered

in the light of open-system theory:

they are short-lived

events, interspersing vast stretches of uneventful existence in

the

life

more temperate But they do show that atoms

of stable atoms under conditions

than those of

stellar interiors.

are able to maintain themselves in a changing environment.

They keep themselves running

entirely

on

their

own

unless

bothered by excessive heat, or by high velocity particles (energies).

And

even then they can perform the adjustments

necessary to keep going, either by a quick readjustment of their electronic structure, or

by a complete nuclear reorgani-

zation of the entire set of atomic

fields.

Thus, contrary

39

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD

Jo

the overall tendency of physical nature, stable atoms do

not run down. They maintain themselves and can even

transmute into more organized ones. But of course even nuclear transmutations do not contradict the Second Law,

sum

since the

of energy

is

degraded consistently with

excess energies are radiated off and further work. at the

As a

same time

burn themselves

result stars

it,

become unavailable

as

for

out, while

atomic populations become more

their

complex and organized. (ii)

as

When we

we know them

processes

of

change the setting and look here on earth,

self-maintenance

we

at

organisms

find basically

analogous

exhibited

in

Organisms are open systems

explicit forms.

They could not

exist for

the constant intake

more than

and output of

much more all their life.

a few minutes without

energies, substances,

and

information. Think only what the survival chances would

be for any organism

were closed. tion,

No

air,

if

all its

intake and output channels

no water, no food, no sensory informa-

no disposal of wastes

—

communication with the world

in

sum, no interaction or

outside.

No

organism could

survive under such circumstances.

Organisms not only constantly take stances, energies,

and information,

in

and put out sub-

as a

computer

is

fed

punched tape on one end and produces the print-out on

—even

the other

more remarkably, they undergo a slow

but inevitable exchange of It

is

as

all their

though various nuts and

parts in the process. bolts,

transistors

and

capacitors were fed to a computer together with the punched tape,

were

and the computer, having to put out

its

its

own

repairs,

own "garbage" with the print-out. Hence much like candle flames or waterfalls,

organisms are very

40

effected

carx *l*f*

The Systems View

of Nature

and output constantly replace and

in that their input

plenish

their

all

parts.

candle flames

unlike

But,

re-

and

organisms are able to maintain their particular

waterfalls,

They can get even when con-

structure under a variety of circumstances.

own

their

ditions

Of

fuel

and make

their

own

repairs

change around them.

course, drastic changes in the environment

may be

Man

beyond the adaptive capacity of any organism.

can

export his terrestrial environment to the surface of the

moon, and thus compensate in living conditions, but

he

for that rather drastic is

irrevocably

change

damaged by

a

brick falling on his head. Other organisms, such as soft-

bodied

insects, are

more

resistant to such forces, yet less

capable of avoiding them. But whether by stitution, all

organisms maintain their

own

skill

or by con-

vital constancies

within a given range of variation in their living conditions.

The most remarkable organic self-maintenance phenomis the process known as "ho meostasis ." The term, coined by Cannon in 1939, refers to the precise regulative mechanisms of warm-blooded creatures. Their body temenon

perature in the

is

maintained constant, notwithstanding variations

surrounding medium, and so

is

blood pressure, sugar

and iron concentration, and a host of other stances and conditions. regulates

its

own

stat regulates the

The

essential sub-

highly developed organism

internal environment,

much

temperature of a house. For

this

reliable information concerning conditions in ings.

and its

as a

its

it

thermorequires

surround-

This comes from sense receptors (eye, ear, nose, touch,

taste)

vital

which

medium.

tell

If

the organism

all it

needs to

know about

conditions change perniciously, the or-

ganism can take steps to protect

itself

—remove

itself if it

41

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD can, or close

more

its shell,

or activate

its

delicate organisms require

ening conditions and the

defense mechanisms.

advance warning of

skill to interpret

The

threat-

the relevant sense

They must be able to predict to some extent what is likely to happen (as a rabbit can predict that he is likely to be attacked when he smells a fox), and see about taking preventive measures. Man, more than any other organism, signals.

has greatly refined such predictive and interpretive In fact, he has

come

to rely

on these

skills to

skills.

such an extent

that many of his natural physical defenses have deteriorated. He can neither fight nor run well enough to survive under

attack from major predators. But he has the

what

is

skill

involved in the attack, and can deal with

to

know

it

either

preventively or aggressively through the use of tools and

Man

instruments.

can now take care of

all

survival

his

needs by using his predictive and manipulative capacities.

The

organism keeps

living

as long as

it

itself

in running condition

can, and performs repairs

(these are the processes of healing

if it

gets

damaged

and regeneration). But

very complex organisms are unable to keep this up in-

and succumb to internal exhaustion even when undamaged (the process of aging). To survive, such species have managed to develop a way to perpetuate definitely,

relatively

themselves by a form o^super-repair: reproduction^) Instead

damaged or worn-out part, they replace the organism. This way the individual organism under-

of replacing a entire

goes the familiar life-cycle of birth, maturation, and death,

but in going.

its

course reproduces

The

individual

itself

and thus keeps the species

now becomes

like the ripple

wave in the sea: the individual, and temporal, while the species,

on the

surface of a larger

like the

ripple, is local

like the

42

The Systems View wave,

vast

is

of Nature

(JO'

and ongoing. Yet

wave

define the curvature of the

the ripples together

all

itself.

The state maintained in and by organisms is the steadyAs we have noted, this is a dynamic balance of ener-

state.

gies

and substances, always poised for

"plain equilibrium, such as the state a

has run down. In

action. It

is

never a

watch reaches when

organic steady-state more closely

fact, the

resembles a wound-up watch, with forces available to vate

all

it

acti-

needed processes. The remarkable feature of the

organism

is

that, unlike a

watch,

it

keeps

itself

wound

up,

and thus counteracts the general tendency of things to run down. It does so by taking in highly organized energies (water,

air, nutrients,

sunlight),

and breaking them down,

using the liberated energy to maintain It

puts out a

much degraded form

bodily wastes) which, fortunately,

form usable by some other from the sun and combining

itself

and grow.

of energy (used-up

air,

still

contains energies in a

species.

By drawing energy

it

with degraded animal sub-

stances, plants recycle the energies

and make them usable

again for more complex organisms.

And

nature, ecologists point out,

is

thus the whole of

something

like a vast, self-

regulating and recycling system, drawing energy from the

sun and running

itself

beautifully balanced

without surpluses and wastes.

and whirlpools

the energy needed to bring the water

flow supplied by the sun.

up

in a stream, with

to the

The substances and

the rounds, time after time, being part of that vortex, being

(iii)

a

mechanism, comparable to a repeating

series of terraced waterfalls

now

It is

head of the

energies

now

upgraded and degraded

The scene before our

the supraorganic sphere, yet

eyes shifts as

many

make

this fall,

in turn,

we contemplate

of the essential elements

43

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD reappear. Here entire organisms jointly constitute

some more enduring than

shifting patterns,

patterns tend to form wholes with their characteristics.

They

This

themselves.

human groups

in

If

irreducible

also exhibit a tendency to perpetuate

self -maintaining, is

These

others.

own

many

what

self- repairing

property

interests us at present.

people were to congregate into groups when and as

long as they pleased, groups and communities would be

ephemeral phenomena indeed. sit

down,

and a

if

A

football

could

player

so inclined, in the middle of a pass throw,

soldier could

throw away

enough of the war. But

that

is

not

his

weapon when he had

how

things are in reality.

There are rules^ regulations, and laws, and even principles

by which we stand. Customs and

as factors, together with

just plain habit enter

an innate tendency to conform

and society. Even informal gatherings obey some unformulated and sometimes consciously unrecognized rules, which keep them coherent over some period to one's culture

of time. Although

some groups have

for instance, one-shot training

technicians to bring

them up

built-in obsolescence,

programs for executives or

to date

on some new develop-

ment, most groups have some degree of permanence. They

may have

"thruput"

(a stream of people passing through

them), yet_their_structure

though the courses

I

is

conserved. For example,

teach exchange their student member-

ship every time I schedule them, the course itself has

degree of permanence. There is

is

continuity in the

presented and discussed. This, too,

And

way

it

my own

since the latter changes at a slower rate

than the former, there

44

some

can change, not as a

function of the change of students but rather of

knowledge.

al-

is

some degree

of pattern-mainte-

The Systems View nance

in the

of Nature

way

the courses are given over the years.

There are various degrees of are

and

rigidity

organization of multiperson groups.

some conservative elements

The

flexibility in the

point

is

that there

associated with each.

Even

conspirators in a revolution swear to a code of honor and

behavior

—one

that

is

quite different, of course, from that

of the society they are attempting to overthrow. In a larger

group, which produces

own

its

own

number

defenses, there are quite a

which conserve the

livelihood

structure.

and mounts

of pragmatic factors

econom y

In the

there are

norms, such as Pareto's "natural price" of goods and vices,

which impose a high degree of

self-regulation

production, distribution, and consumption. mists speak of an equilibrium which the

maintain

—

a

process

which

parallels

its

Many

economy rather

ser-

on

econo-

strives to

closely

the

homeostatic self-regulation of the animal body. Prices rise with

greater profits

demand; high

and

attract

prices

on goods make

more people

to

for

produce the

goods; hence eventually the supply equals or surpasses the

demand and prices fall again. Then production is cut until, through a number of fluctuations, some kind of equilibrium between supply and demand is reached. Likewise with defense:

threat

from outside forces (or subversion from

within) calls for the mobilization of threat

on the

is

armed

troops. If the

overcome, the troops become an excessive burden

state finances

and are reduced again. Here the

bal-

ance involves threat to collective security on the one hand

and defensive capacities on the

The

political

and juridical

other.

structure of a society tends to

remain consistent with the need to regulate individual behavior in accordance with prior concepts of justice and

45

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD the objective

demands

of social existence. Adjustment of

undue tension between overly

strict

or overly permissive

laws and such concepts and demands occurs by means of juridical

reform

or,

if

radical elements gain the upper hand,

through political revolution. National and international structures

obey analogous constraints. They follow a

nite course, conserve continuity within change,

norms of behavior on excitation

and impose

members. Like atoms under

and organisms under changing conditions,

structures adjust

dynamic

their

defi-

social

and adapt, maintaining themselves one of

steady-state rather than in

in a

inert equilibrium.

Like a truly self-winding watch, they have forces disposal to activate their various functions

at their

and remain

in a

state of readiness. Inert equilibrium is a sure sign of decay,

in the supraorganic sphere

no

than in the organic and

less

the suborganic one.

3.

Natural Systems Create Themselves

to the Challenge of the

in

Response

Environment

Self-creativity in the sense suggested here

is

not a mys-

terious quality, innate to entities with "spirit" or "soul." It is

offset

a response to changing conditions which cannot be

by adjustments based on the

more modest

existing structure. In this

sense, self -creativity is

tion. If natural

a precondition of evolu-

systems were merely to maintain the status

quo throughout the range of circumstances they encounter there would be no evolution, no patterns of development, and nothing we could call progress. Things would either succeed in remaining what they are, or go under. The

46

The Systems View

of Nature

evidence indicates, however, that

manage

many

things not only

to offset the pernicious influence of forces in their

environment but are capable of development. Natural

sys-

tems evolve new structures and new functions; they create themselves in time.

Now,

there are

One

be confused.

is

womb.

grow

coded

is

embryo

a preprogrammed kind of change, such

and growth of the embryo within the

as the evolution

mother's

two forms of change and they must not

All the information the

embryo needs to its genes. The

right into the structure of

as such

is

not creative

—

it

does not

make up

its

own

patterns of development but follows already established

pathways. This kind of change

which

"ontogenesis, "

young

the

change

is

is

the

is

typical of the process called

growth and maturation of

of self-reproducing species. typical of "phylogenesis,"

of the species,

and not

one generation

The

other kind of

meaning the evolution

just their individual

to the next. Phylogenesis

members, from is

the "creative

O^Jj

advance" of nature into novelty (as Whitehead would put it)

;

the trailblazing self-transformation of entire species

it is

and populations of organisms. This I

mean by

fies

is

the kind of change

the self-creativity of natural systems.

It signi-

the ability of systems to generate the very information

which codes It

may be

their structure

and behavior.

well to pause at this point to consider a thorny

problem connected with the concept of evolution. The problem

is,

does evolution have a purpose,

fulfill

a plan,

some definite end-product or final stage? some general blueprint which all things strive to by nature, as the classical Greek philosophers were

or strive toward Is there

realize

wont

to

assume? Or

is

it

all

a giant

game

of dice, with

47

\ t

S

|c*A \

q X^

'

.

^

w A\j\tft^ T

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD chance ruling the evolution of species without any deeper

meaning or plan

to it?

This question can

dence than

at

now be answered

with more confi-

any previous time in the history of

scientific

thought. Instead of speculations and rather arbitrary ad hoc

hypotheses to account for

now ways

this

phenomenon

or that,

we can

glimpse something like a logic of developmental pathas

comes from the workshop

such. This logic

of

mathematicians, systems theorists, cyberneticians, and similar "specialized generalists."

v^

"^ Assume

vd

V^

$J

\rs£ \r/v

\

The

general drift of their hypo-

Jhesesjs something like this,

number

that there are a

organized objects sharing a

field,

topologists sometimes call a landscape. is

open

to

some

influences

of at least partially

space, or surface

Each

—what

of these objects

from the environment and

re-

sponds to these influences. Hence each object influences

all

by communicating with

its

others, directly or indirectly,

own

Now, as each natural system (for these are the "objects" we are interested in) receives and responds to inputs from its fellows, it provides new inputs for the environment.

others.

And

so each system constantly challenges the others

by responding

itself

to

such challenges. There

dependence among the systems

when one

is

inter-

as with points along a net,

some displacement, where they are relative to the moving

displaced,

corresponding to

—

is

all

others suffer

point. In natural systems, of course, the points themselves

move and produce responding movements from

—

the others

active responses, not merely passive effects. In virtue of

the connectedness of

behavior of

all

or later emerge.

all points,

there

is

coordination in the

systems, and an overall pattern will sooner

^ o^

The Systems View

Assume now

of Nature

that the individual systems strung along the

net are capable not merely of repeating certain types of

behavior, but of inventing entirely

new

ones.

We

get a

progressive modification of behaviors: one invention poses

challenges

as

respond by their is

effects

its

reach other systems,

own matching

and these

inventions. Since behavior

based on structure, there must be an evolution in the

systems themselves. basic

mechanism

sector.

As

we find ourselves with the as we know it in the biological

a result,

of evolution

There are inventions or "mutations" produced from

time to time, and

randomly, that

we can assume

is,

that

that they are

produced

chance alone determines which

system produces what invention at which time. Yet they are being produced fairly regularly, and some inventions prove to

be more compatible than others with the parallel (innovabehavior of the systems with which they interact. All

tive)

some become definitely The result is that certain

inventions are equal at birth, but

more equal than

others later on.

coordinated patterns emerge in the pathways of innovation

among

the systems. There will be successful and unsuccess-

ful inventions,

will

and the successful ones,

like

Broadway

have long runs while the unsuccessful ones

shortly after opening night. closes

the

plays,

will close

Continued development

dis-

refinement of the successful innovations, the

elimination and merging of the less successful ones. There is

a gradual reduction of chaos and the patient emergence

of discernible order

all

along the network of systems.

We have one more feature to add to this picture. We must allow that several systems can jointly participate in an invention which

makes them very

close collaborators.

systems will henceforth behave so closely in

harmony

Such that

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD they respond to challenges from other systems as a team.

They delegate

different parts of the response

among them-

selves,

with collaborators specializing in carrying out specific

tasks.

We

have

them out

difficulty in sorting

as individual

systems, since from the viewpoint of any outsider they behave as one: to any stranger they speak with a single

among

tongue. Since what they do

themselves in carrying

out their joint tasks gets to be rather complex, and rather beside the point as far as their joint effect

good grounds

there will be

for

is

concerned,

lumping them together and

considering them as a single system. Hence for an observer

with a

human

type of intelligence the patterns of develop-

ment include the merging of formerly separate systems

into

more complex supersystems. Such supersystem-formation need not be limited by anything other than the availability of participating systems.

We

can assume that existing supersystems

and form super-supersystems, and that tems

of their

no input unless

it,

we cannot

it

Of

call

form

sys-

course, that ultimate system will have

too, is part of a further net (in

which case

be different from that of any system or

will

the effect or

it.

these, too,

ultimate), and so the situation of the net

supersystem within is

collaborate

own, until the entire net adopts the character

°f a .giant sy stem.

qua system

may

it.

The

outcome of the

It signifies that

systemicity of the entire net alliances of the systems within

most general

state

toward which

all

events

within the net tend.

""Where, then,

is

such a net going?

a state of great multiplicity and state of highly coordinate general

become 50

parts of a few,

It is

little

progressing from

coordination to a

forms of order. The many

and the few form coherent connec-

The Systems View of Nature tions

which make them part of the ultimate one of the net But the many do not cease

itself.

they

become

parts of teams,

nevertheless retain exist

as

and of teams of teams, they

They

individuality of their own.

subassemblies within the larger whole.

definite

Moreover

some

While

to exist for all that.

function need not be conceived purely

their

a. cv

mechanistically, like that of cogs within a machine; theirs

j/^L ^\

could be a function more like that of a vice president in

an organization. Such functions are not uniquely deter-

mined by the

situation in

which the individual

his _ability_to deal with that situation factor.

.

evolution in the real world,

we

is

a good analogue of

get meaningful answers to

our question concerning the existence of a master plan in nature. If by such a plan one

means something preestab-

and realized by purposive manipulation, then the

answer

is

that there

is

no such plan

—

or

temporary science knows nothing about

if

it.

there

But

if

is,

con-

by plan

one means a recognizable pattern of development, then the answers

is

definitely yes.

do rather than

in

some

limits, perfectly logical

That things develop the way they entirely different

and foreseeable.

ways

Among

is,

within

these

f ore-

seeable characteristics of development are incr easing co-

nrHirmtirm nf formerly relatively isolated entities, the emer-

gence of more general patterns of order, the consolidation of individuals in superordinate organizations,

and the pro-

gressive refi nement of certain types of functions

sponses. There to oneness

is

and

re-

a progression from multiplicity and chaos

and order. There

is

also progressive

development

-

yt

p&

in just this sense.

abstract scenario

If this rather

(j* ^ zd by other animals and these could

be pointed to with pride, as attainments unique to

at last

him. Consciousness, abstract thinking, language, feeling,

and the expression and embodiment of these cational realities such as written

and the many

transfer

signs

communi-

and spoken words, works

of art and other objects expressing feelings tions,

in

and

disposi-

and symbols which serve to

meaning and guide behavior

in the

And

are surely unique achievements of man.

human as such,

world, it

was

believed, they are superior to the achievements of other species.

While the aforementioned things and capacities are surely

unmatched by other

species

on

earth,

we must

recognize that they are not unattainable in principle by

some

of them:

chimps have been known to delight in

spreading multicolored paint on canvas,

and learn a rudimentary

sort of

make and

use tools,

symbol language. But the

ultimate blow to our anthropocentric pretensions will be dealt

by the realization that humanlike

qualities are not

necessarily "higher" achievements or signs of evolutionary progress. Evolution

may

not go in the

human

direction for

85

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD other species, nor

more

is

on

that to be construed a failure

likely that the

human pathway

their

of develop-

part. It

is

ment

one of those innumerable experiments which evolu-

is

tion tries, follows

up

and abandons

successful,

if

if

not. It

neither better nor worse than having long necks like

is

giraffes,

wings like birds, or a whiplike tongue

may

Evolution

even

if

What

evolution

it

uses

like anteaters.

not "drive" toward humanoid qualities at

them under rather

may be up

to could

all,

special circumstances.

be merely the continuing

structuration of the biosphere through increased levels of

communication between systems of one

more integrated supersystems on

first

the next.

human consciousand language come about in the

But why, then, the reader ness, thought, feeling, art,

level, resulting in

will ask, did

place?

The concept consciousness

raises

havoc

untold

heated discussion, often for no other reason than

used in different senses.

It

in the sense in

dog and mine surely has consciousness.

is

and the mating urge;

generally

it

mean

It feels

which your

pain, hunger,

can be happy and sad and

endowed with an inner

consciousness can

being

can mean subjective awareness

and the experience of sensations

thirst,

its

and

life.

But

in

another sense

the ability not only to have but also

be aware of having sensations. By simply stopping for moment and reflecting on my own mental states, I can examine my own sensations: I not only perceive that red object on the desk but also know that I perceive it. And I

to

a

can not merely

on with

all

feel sad

but be aware of feeling sad, and so

(or most) of the sensations that

sequence of mental

life.

I

am

not at

all

make up my

sure that

my dog

has consciousness in this sense and, even at the risk of

86

The Systems View

Man

of

offending the reader, rather doubt that his has This,

at

And

it is

last,

either.

property.

the basis for a long series of other properties,

of which presuppose

some way

in

feels

all

the ability not only to

know

perceive and feel things, but to

and

it

human

seems to be a uniquely

them and hence order them

that

one perceives

in the light of his

purposes.

Now,

it is

quite impossible to explain subjectivity (con-

sciousness in the

first

sense) by reference to the particular

and behavior of the human organism and

structure

nervous system. (I shall henceforth sense in which dogs also have the

word "consciousness"

uniquely human.)

we have they,

show

we

to grant that

are

too,

call

consciousness in the

"subjectivity,"

and reserve which

for the second sense, in

it is

grant that people have subjectivity,

chimpanzees and dogs have

endowed with organs

signs of purposive behavior.

we

then

If

it

its

are forced to admit that

But

all

it,

for perception if

we

grant

since

and this,

organisms possessing

a nervous system and evidencing goal-oriented behavior

have life,

subjectivity.

we

Now,

in reviewing the simpler

forms of

find sensitivity as well as purposive behavior with-

out anything

more than

the rudiments of a nervous system,

such as nerve knots or ganglia. Worms, for example, give every indication of feeling something against an obstacle, or

seem and

to

find

do

when

suitable ones.

they

come up

they are squeezed, and they

their best to escape

more

when

from unpleasant

Why,

they are deprived of subjectivity?

then, should

And how

Recent experiments show unsuspected

situations

we

say that

about plants?

sensitivities

even in

them. Certainly they perceive sunlight, temperature changes, obstacles,

and so on, for plants react

to all these.

Moreover, 87

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD they modify their behavior as a result: most plant species will

grow around

some respond

obstacles,

to

changes in the

by movement or by putting forth more

direction of sunlight

leaves in sunny areas than elsewhere. Granted that plants

not have perceptions and feelings of the human their sensitivities to conditions

instances of perception?

And

if

in their so,

do

variety, are

environment not

do they not warrant the

assumption that these perceptions are registered in the plant in

some way

infinitely less

there does not

seem

realm to draw the jectivity It

is

at least

to

line

analogous

own

although

to,

sensations? In short,

be any good place in the organic

between species endowed with sub-

and species which are

not.

certainly stretches credibility to extend the notion of

subjectivity

there

that

evolved than, our

is

beyond the

no viable

level of multicellular organisms, but

alternative. If a free-living

amoeba

is

granted to have some primitive sort of sensation which cor-

responds to the "tropisms" by which

it

orients itself in

its

ambient, does the specialized cell of the plant or animal

organism lack them? There

nothing that the unicellular

is

animal has in terms of structure and function that the of the multicellular animal could not match. Thus, reluctantly,

we must conclude

up our body have

that the cells

which make

levels of sensations of their

responding, of course, to their

own

cell

however

own, cor-

levels of sensitivity

and

not to the sensitivity of our entire organism (our sensitivity)

Rather than exhaust the patience of the reader by posing

same question over again for each principal kind of natural system, let us consider only two far-fetched cases.

the

Take first the atom. When it or wave of a frequency above 88

is its

bombarded by a

particle

threshold of elasticity but

The Systems View

Man

of

below the energies needed to produce nuclear reacts

energy equivalent to that which tivity of

a definite kind?

And

merely an automaton and

is

Of

course,

even

The

should feels

if

is

say that the atom

feel,

feel.

But

by

disturbed in

its

it is

not also true that the its

nest,

they

is

it

is

right?

vidual bees?

Of

course,

we

swarm

is it

not also the

swarm

just the indi-

don't have the individual bees

body and the body. But when a dog snaps

his nose,

action,

as a

it is

even though

all his

body

cells

at a fly

cells collaborate in the

not just his body cells which snap, but the dog

whole animal.

And

it is

precisely in this sense that

not just the individual bees but the sets

is

disturbed, as a rather vague

And

and the swarm, any more than we have the individual on

of

accordingly. But

by pursuing the intruder, and not

that reacts

a

the individual bees that

who respond

swarm

own

When

and men.

plants, animals,

but real entity in

of a

it

a subjectivity of

an undifferentiated one.

are disturbed and it

we

nothing in the process?

other example concerns the supraorganic systems

constituted

bees

it

absorbs. Is this not sensi-

nothing like what humans

feels

it

it

could well feel something like atoms sorts,

fission,

by quantum jumps and the emission of an amount of

swarm

as

it is

a whole which

out in pursuit of the unfortunate intruder that disturbed

it.

The

swarm of bees and a dog is one The dog is a more integrated system than a swarm of bees, therefore it is more convenient in more respects to speak of the dog acting than his body cells doing so. Think how awkward it would be to describe a difference between a

of degree, not of kind.

conceit goer's reaction to Beethoven as the reaction of the cells in his

nervous system, not to mention of the subcellular 89

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD tissues

way

and bodies constituting

it is

more convenient

nerve

his

cells.

In the same

to speak of a student

body being

riotous or bright or lazy than each individual student,

a nation being upset rather than each of levels of integration the

many

do we have

right

grant

it

it

to

is

We

to the others?

subjectivity

is

just as true for

is

and

for organisms

deny

At given

citizens.

achieve cohesion and speak

with the voice of one. Since this

and organisms as

its

and of

body

societies,

cells

what

when we

subjectivity to the latter

must end by acknowledging that

possessed by

all

natural systems whatsoever,

although the grade of subjectivity differs from level to level

and species

to species.

This conclusion does not do violence to our commonsense

mode

of thinking;

only extends

it

it

beyond

boundaries. Clear and specific sensations are

its

habitual

still

reserved

for animals with evolved nervous systems, for

we know

of the dependence of highly differentiated forms of aware-

ness

upon neural

structures

and functions. But there

is

no

unique correlation between the nervous system and the capacity for subjective sensations. Having subjectivity does

not depend on having a nervous system; and the absence of a nervous system does not

only flux

its

downgrading

mean

into

the absence of subjectivity,

some

global,

undifferentiated

of sensations, perhaps vaguely resembling those of

pleasure and pain.

The capacity

for such sensations

is

most

likely a universal feature of systems arising in nature.

Although universality of organized complexity

is

subjectivity in the realms of

a conclusion flowing logically from

the articulated philosophy of the

new

trends in the con-

temporary sciences, rigorous experimental evidence cannot be marshalled either for or against 90

it.

In the final analysis

The Systems View

Man

of

we can only observe our own sensations. I am already guesswhen I speak of those of my wife and sons. Yet if I don't believe that it is reasonable to assume that my own ing

unique

in all the world, I

must deduce the

subjectivity of others

from analogies of

their physiology

subjectivity

is

and behavior. And

in the

contemporary systems view these

analogies stretch both beyond and below the

human

being,

clear across the vast hierarchy of natural systems.

When

subjectivity

register internal in the

is

defined as the ability of a system to

and external forces

affecting

its

existence

form of sensations, however primitive they may be, we

must conclude that

subjectivity

universal in nature's

is

realms of organized complexity. But

this

conclusion does

not hold for "consciousness," defined as the ability of a sys-

tem

to

be aware of

its

own

subjectivity.

Self -awareness, as

contrasted with subjectivity, does not appear to be a universal property of natural systems.

There are good reasons

to correlate self-awareness with certain varieties of highly

integrated nervous functions, performed only by the most

evolved nervous systems.

There are tell

relatively clear-cut behavioral indications that

us whether or not an organism

capacity

of

monitoring

its

endowed with consciousness

own

their

endowed with

the

Organisms

are liberated from the world

of concrete here-and-now experience

autonomous world of

is

sensations.

own

and can enter a quasi-

creation. Subjectivity

is

the

it registers actual events when they take As Whitehead said, sometimes we see an elephant and often we do not; there is little we can do about it on the level of sensations. However, there is much indeed that we can do about conjuring up things like elephants, and even more

slave of actuality:

place.

91

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD outlandish things like electromagnetic fields of force potentials

and twelve-tone music, on the

level of consciousness.

For now we move not on the level of actual sensations, but on that of a monitoring of sensations. And by having a kind of running representation of our sensations, and not only the originals themselves, classify

many

of them,

Thus we can even create

and

we can come

to

know and

establish their interrelations.

so-called ideal entities like

and other abstract concepts

numbers

—pure monitoring phenomena,

without direct counterparts in the sphere of subjective sensations.

The conscious mind

—

abstract thinking jectivity.

Hence

organism it

is

able to develop language and

feats not within the reach of mere subis

it

possesses

relatively easy to tell

by

consciousness

whether any

noting

whether

has developed a language and other symbolic modes

of expression

cend the

and communication, and whether

directly triggered test.

it

can trans-

here-and-now by making plans not

limits of the

by actual

stimuli.

Man

alone passes this

Just because animals such as cats talk to each other

—sometimes them — and because

so vociferously that shoes have to be thrown

at

they appear to plan their strategies in

catching mice, does not

Their talk

is

sign

mean

that they

communication

have consciousness.

in the

form of actual

and not symbol communication, on the level of abstract thought. Their strategies in anticipating which way a mouse will run are triggered by the sight and smell of

stimuli,

mice and are not plans excogitated while sunning on a convenient windowsill.

Without disparaging the

gence of cats and offending cat-lovers,

we can

intelli-

say that cats,

while having highly differentiated subjective sensations and precisely correlated responses, have not

92

managed

to evolve

The Systems View

of

Man

monitoring capacity which represents the relatively

the

autonomous realm of true consciousness. They see, feel, and know, but they do not know that they see, feel, and know.

Nor can by

their

they manipulate their seeing, feeling, and knowing

own

volition.

Are we not

saying, then, that this remarkable capacity

of monitoring

and knowing one's own mental events

is

truly spiritual

phenomenon, something

sets

apart from the rest of nature? There

this

score,

last

is

not a supernatural phe-

or even a very complex one.

It

can be

built into

systems, such as sophisticated computerized servo-

mechanisms. All that

is

needed

is

a circuit designed specifi-

cally to read the signals of other circuits. set of

bad news on

decade or so we have come

to realize that self-awareness

artificial

is

While such uniqueness was suspected

too.

through the ages, in the

nomenon

at last,

that,

man

a

machines

in a factory is

geared to perform a certain

function, say, painting automobiles.

of the machines

is

For example, a

The proper

functioning

registered in a series of electric impulses

which are fed into a computer. The computer can be

programmed

to light

up a green bulb when the

signals

manifest a certain pattern and to light up a red one

when

a

new

pattern appears.

Thus the computer monitors

the functioning of the machines and signals any discrepancy

between the desired norms and the actual performance. (Engine performance instruments on cars and planes do essentially the

same

thing.)

Computers can be designed

to deal with nothing but such signals.

grams which make them produce an irregularity of function

is

They can have pro-

specific signals

registered.

whenever

These signals can

be fed to activate repair mechanisms as long as the irregu93

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD larity is registered.

When

all

phase of monitoring

Other

frills

is

back

things are

emergency procedures are shut

the

off

to normal,

and the passive

resumed.

can be added to

this

procedure.

The con-

computer can be endowed with the capacity

trolling

to try

various repair procedures in succession until one of them

works.

can be programmed to learn from

It

and the next time the to

this

irregularity occurs to

the successful procedure.

experience

go straight

Moreover, some really

own

phisticated computers can be taught to devise their

procedures, improving on their

so-

programmed performance.

Checker-playing computers, for example, can perfect their

"Dy-

strategies until they consistently beat their designers.

namic optimizing programming"

many

respects.

Yet

is

truly

human-like in

not due to the presence of a soul

it is

or spirit in the machine, but to a separate circuit which

(such as manufacturing goods or

doesn't "do" anything

propelling a vehicle) but

is

entirely confined to monitoring

the performance of other systems and setting

it

right

when

needed. It is

to

evident that

fulfill

all

highly complex systems, required

a variety of tasks with a high degree of precision,

require a monitor of this kind. fill

Many

artificial

systems

such functions in man-machine teamwork: a

ful-

human

operator monitors the machine's functions and corrects for eventual malfunctions. their

Some advanced machines do

levels of

corrective

complexity and precision where a special

monitor

is

required unless

monitor themselves. Only it,

94

this

on

own. But systems in nature cannot progress to such

man

they develop

self-

the

has succeeded in perfecting

although higher primates have

made

a good beginning

The Systems View in this direction.

of

Man

Man's highly accomplished monitor

cerebral cortex: the seat of

all

the

is

conscious processes, includ-

ing the ability to symbolize. Without the cortex reflectionless vegetable, well capable of

man

is

a

having sensations

and coordinating basic bodily functions, but unable

to think

about his sensations and to plan ahead.

Having consciousness makes man unique among systems in terrestrial nature.

But

this

uniqueness does not suggest

a supernatural quality, only a combination of most improbable circumstances, which led the

ties.

human

on

species to rely

and perhaps accidental, monitoring

at first primitive,

abili-

Consciousness does, indeed, confer great selective ad-

vantage. tions,

A

species of organism possessing

it

can plan ac-

communicate the plan within groups, and carry

in purposive

it

out

teamwork. In developing the rudiments of con-

sciousness, our ancestors exploded the limits of genetically

programmed behavior. They learned to learn from experience. By reflecting on the events of a hunt, for example, they could abstract its relevant elements and compare them with other occasions. They could select the most successful pattern of behavior and adopt it. Mere subjectivity is bound to the

immediacy of events; only consciousness can

one from by

his

his actual experience

and enable him

liberate

to control

it

own will.

This

is

the great selective advantage of consciousness,

and man came strength,

to rely

instinctive

on

skills

it

more and more. His physical and patterns declined,

the acuity of his sense organs diminished.

even

There was no

longer a direct need for them; the brunt of the responsibility for survival rested intelligence.

As

on abstract mental processes,

that

is,

on

Piaget and other investigators point out,

95

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD intelligence

the most efficient instrument of interaction

is

between organism and environment when the interaction far-flung

is

and complex, and has

greatly extended in space

to be accurate. Its scope

and time: an

is

intelligent being

can think about things past and future, and things far away as well.

The

abstracted components of the stream of

sations are those

which recur with some

human

regularity.

sen-

These

man grasped them He reified the recur-

are the invariances in the stream, and in terms of their sensory qualities.

first

rent patterns

sensory experience,

of his

endowing with

thinghood clusters of sensations which conformed to a

common

pattern. Later

he symbolized these invariances,

The rudiments

representing them in sound and in picture.

were already developed

art

among

the

elsewhere ally,

Cro-Magnon, as cave paintings in Lascaux and Language may have developed gradu-

over a period of as

denotative

Whereas

of

50,000 years ago

testify.

from expressive to

least

at

signs,

much

as

500,000

years. It evolved

such as animals use to communicate,

symbols,

of

typical

signs provide a stimulus

modern

which

languages.

signals something

of immediate significance in the communicator's environ-

ment, a symbol

may have

a meaning which

vorced from the here-and-now.

A

ritual

species of birds signifies the readiness to

and

place, but a love song

and

its

it

is

entirely di-

dance in some

mate

at this time

can speak of sexual intercourse

attendant sensations in general terms, or refer to

in a distant place, far in the past.

Thus human language,

in using denotative symbols rather than expressive signs,

became an ing. It

96

effective instrument for

enabled

man

communicating mean-

not only to survive, but to dominate

The Systems View

Man

of

the world around him. Existence

within the context of a

municated by means of a

became

social existence,

common set of meanings, comcommon language. Culture was

born, and elaborate forms of social organization created.

Man became

a sociocultural animal.

In the light of such considerations

draw the conclusion ment of human would is

that culture

survival.

is

it

might be natural to

nothing but an instru-

Yet such conclusion, while natural,

also be hasty. Frankl tells us that "nothing-butness"

the contemporary variant of nineteenth-century nihilism's

"nothingness," and one

may have

—

This

once

would say

survival is

as fallacious as the other. Culture

arisen in the battleground of the fight for

survival, but

of us

is

that

it

arose

took on a

it

that culture

it

is

life

of

more than a

is

its

human

own. Most

tool of

human

a qualitatively higher phenomenon.

based on a value judgment according to which

thinking rationally and feeling with clarity and intensity,

coupled perhaps with faith and a conscious morality, better or higher than merely assuring one's survival

the continuity of the species.

Be

that as

it

may,

it is

is

and

clear that

must not be confused. The programmed into every existing natural But why did we develop an autonomous culture?

culture and survival functions ability to survive is

system.

We

can piece together the evidence and hazard a rea-

soned guess. There

is

no

to support the claim that

clear

and independent evidence

an evolved culture has biological

survival value, nor for the different claim, that once biological survival

To

hold that

is

assured, the inevitable next step

human

culture

is

banners of biological evolution culture did

come

about, and

it

is

culture.

a goal inscribed on the very is

without foundation. But

did arise as a sequel to the

97

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD evolution of monitoring organs coupled with high-level sensitivities

subserving biological ends.

development of human culture

due

is

I suggest that the

to the gradual trans-

formation of a means into an end. Ordinarily,

when

a

means

transformed into an end

is

we

are far from ready to admire or even to condone

We

are told, for example, that

toward achieving the

making money

is

it.

means

a

finer things in life, or at least for

obtaining the conditions which give us the physical and

peace to contemplate them. But for

many

people

amassing material goods becomes an end in

itself,

and

spiritual

such cases

we

in

tend to shake our heads and speak of mis-

taken values and wrong thinking. Yet

I

would now propose

that a basically similar process occurred in the creation of

human

culture.

A means was used

as an

end

in

itself.

What

means and ends, and was this truly a mistake? The means are consciousness as we have defined it:

are these

self-monitoring capacities of the

Coupled with

human nervous

ness emancipated

He and

system.

subjectivity (sensitivity to the environment,

registered as a sequence of sensations),

reality

the

man from

human

conscious-

the confines of his sensory

and placed him within a world he himself created.

could surround himself with ideas, modes of feeling, beliefs

which are only

indirectly related to the experi-

enced world around him.

emerged they conferred

When

these

capacities

ment which included many physically stronger and creatures.

first

advantage in an environ-

selective

faster

But once the capacities were developed, man

became utterly dependent on them. It is

a case of the sorcerer's apprentice. If one uses reason

in tracking

98

down

one's prey

and

in defending the

common

The Systems View territory,

Man

of

he cannot stop using

when gazing

it

sky; reason cannot turn itself off. It

is

at the starlit

likewise impossible to

reserve one's mystical feelings and mythical beliefs for times

when

these

some

serve

function

positive

which can take the place of

some things, And when he evolved

life.

the capacity to substitute

he also became

imaginative satisfactions for real ones,

saddled with the capacity to

it

became was for

feel,

envisage, and believe.

as impossible to return to the state of nature as

Adam

which expresses

and Eve to return to Paradise— a myth insight in metaphorical terms.

this

knowledge but of the many

apple, not only of culture,

rituals

Once man started he became stuck with his

to use reason in

It

in

as

real aggression

unfeeling and unbelieving in daily

rationality.

— —and become

proved to have irreversible

uncook a half-cooked acquired truth.

And

could only go ahead.

Qgg, so

effects.

facets of

As you cannot

you cannot unlearn a

since there

The

half-

was no turning back, man

And we have recorded history

to testify

that he did.

Man's phylogenetic development called for consciousness as a

means

when man's evolution. The

of species survival. But consciousness,

evolved, took over the direction of

means became the end: the self-maintaining biological species was transformed into a culture sensitive to knowledge, beauty, faith, and morality.

We

could hardly

call this a

mistake.

Man's evolutionary history determined a cultural creature.

It

that he

become

did not determine, on the other hand,

what kind of culture he would have. Hence our problem day

is

not whether to have a culture;

culture to have.

And

this requires

it

is

some

to-

what kind of a serious thought.

99

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD

The kind fathers

of culture

is

we inherited from our fathers and

grand-

beginning to challenge our ability to survive on

this planet. If

we do

nothing more than blindly accept

it,

we may not be able to do what they did, namely, hand it down to our children and grandchildren: we may not have the grandchildren to hand it down to. This raises the question,

what

culture?

3.

is

it

that ultimately determines the nature of a

problem that we address ourselves

It is to this

next.

Values and Culture

Recorded history species.

During

is

a fragment of the social history of our

fragment, as in times before, the vast

this

organizational processes of differentiation, complexification

and association of individuals within groups, and of groups within groups, has taken place incessantly.

now

quickened,

now

slackened. But

it

The pace has

has never reversed

more than locally, and never for long. On the whole, the same branching evolutionary development took place here But here

as in the organic realm. setting of cultures.

And

development or slow

it

it

took place within the

cultures can quicken the pace of

down.

There are many factors

in a culture

which accelerate or

brake societal processes. Tool-using capacity factor,

is

one such

one which in our culture developed into the vast

resources of contemporary technology. Mores, customs, and

laws regulating

human

goods are further

interrelations

factors.

100

is

one

The speed and range

of inter-

is still

another. But over and above

set of factors

which exercises determining

personal communication these, there

and the exchange of

Man

The Systems View

of

influence, for

this set

it is

which influences the persistence,

growth, or decay of any particular kind of technology, law,

and communication. This

is

the set of values prevalent in a

Cultures are, in the final analysis, value-guided

society.

systems. Insofar as they are independent of biological need

and the reproductive needs of the

fulfillment

species, cul-

tures satisfy not bodily needs, but values. Values define cultural

man's need for rationality, meaningfulness in emotional

experience, richness of imagination, and depth of faith. All cultures respond to such suprabiological values.

form they do so depends on the

But

what

in

kind of values

specific

people happen to have. In

early

cultures

rational,

emotive,

mystical elements were interwoven in synchretic unity. is

part science, part

mankind logical

art,

lived with

and physical

world of myth

is

part religion.

one foot on the reality

How many in the

nebulous

But

scientific

myth

until the

a subject for speculation. itself

Myth

millennia

ground of bio-

solid

and the other

thought in the West did not divest

and

imaginative,

of

beginning of the great Hellenic culture, some four thousand In a slow but seemingly inexorable process, the

years ago. rational

and the emotive-imaginative-mystical elements of

myth were

One cohered

separated.

into philosophy,

first

cosmological, then humanistic and social; the other into religion, literature,

and

The

art.

great split that led to the

medieval distinction between moral and natural sciences,

and

later to the malaise of the

shadowed tists.

The

in the rivalry of

"two cultures," was

fore-

Greek philosophers and drama-

global unity of previous cultures

was gone, and

never entirely recovered.

The golden age

of

Greek

civilization

was guided by the 101

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD ideal of living the

good

life. It

was succeeded by Christian-

ism in the West, where the good

life

was

kingdom of God. It was not until modern age that the eternal order of

shifted to the

next: the

the beginnings of

the

things

subjected to empirical and rational scrutiny and to

was again

man began

adopt new values. First he was playing "zero-sum games";

he proceeded on the assumption that there are a fixed

number

of goods,

and these have

equally as possible.

—

another there

is

The

as expressed

to

be distributed as

man is wit who

gain of one

by the lonely

the loss of said that

if

a doll for every guy, some guy somewhere must

be going around with two. However, with the science and

new techniques

rise of

modern

of transforming energy in the

production of goods, zero-sum games were replaced by

growth games. The theory of early capitalism, as expressed

Adam

by

Smith, was based on the realization that there

can be growth cycles where one thing leads continuously to the next, and by the time the cycle returns to

point there has been a gain

all

its

starting

around. These cycles

such as saving, investment, production, distribution, con-

—were recognized

sumption, labor, and renewed saving

to

apply only to material goods. The spiritual goods were

thought to follow in their wake, when everyone had had

enough of whatever he wanted. Equipped with the technological applications tonian science,

growth

in

modern

Its

values were material-

istically oriented: the

good

and the better a

larger production.

is

a large production per capita,

But

internal prob-

lems created by the economy's development prompted thinkers to formulate alternative theories.

102

New-

capitalism led to an unparalleled

economic productivity.

still

of

many

Marx proposed

The Systems View

Man

of

the most radical one in

declaring the need to

and

private property, division of labor,

class differences.

Others, like Keynes, suggested creating an

still

human

dition of

economy with

of goods within everyone's earning

sufficiency

Their ideals

abolish

a

capacity.

centered on material goods as the preconfulfillment,

whether the goods were to be

obtained through corporate capitalism based on private ownership, or by a socialist economy based on collective

The golden age was

ownership.

had been a

fulfilled,

more equal

and

to

come when

basic needs

meant more production and

that

distribution of goods.

In the meantime Western culture reduced the death rate, did not immediately drop the birth rate, increased inter-

personal communication, and transformed the face of the earth in

its

sumption of natural resources vast population. past,

men

Whereas

just so

purposes.

much

a

There

is.

what

of

is

we have come much of it, usable for human

limit,

just so

is

there

and even decades

is

Not only can we not increase per capita produc-

tion indefinitely, but rate in

at

in centuries

thought that the sky was the

to realize that the earth

and

made for the concompounded rate by a

image. At the same time this

we cannot even

duplicate

America and Western Europe

its

present

for the rest of the

world. All the people of the world cannot live as Westerners

do today; the earth

is

something entirely new games. Progress cannot

not rich enough for that. This

is

for the players of nonzero-sum lie

in

more and

bigger, as

we have

come to believe. Progress must be redefined, and that means a new system of values. But what is there on which to base our values? This becomes the paramount question of our day.

103

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD It

was fashionable, not very long ago,

to profess thorough

skepticism in regard to value norms, holding them to be

nothing more than expressions of personal likes and

dislikes.

Similar to arguments concerning one's preferences for the

mountains or the seashore, they were said to be emotive responses on the part of individuals and not facts capable

and disproof. Relativism

of proof

in cultural anthropology,

together with subjectivism and noncognitivism in philosophical ethics, pronounced a death sentence on normative values; scholars found

held that there

is

no

them, and hence

justification for

no point even

in discussing them.

The

evidence for such skepticism was grounded partly in the observation that people hold very different values, partly in the fact that there does not

empirical experience of value advertising,

seem

itself.

to

and

be any reliable

Contrary to popular

which often claims that one can see the value

of this product or that, one cannot see values, nor can one

hear, touch, taste, or smell them.

there are justified,

erence

me

it

would seem

that

no grounds on which value judgments could be other than personal preference.

may be

And

while pref-

a good reason for you liking one thing and

liking another,

to agree

Hence

it is

which thing

is

no

justification at all for

our coming

best.

Skepticism concerning the objectivity of value norms

may

be rather too hasty, however. That many value judgments lack awareness of objective foundations

even be the case that

all

may be

true. It

may

value judgments in the history of

our species have ignored objective foundations. This would still

not preclude there being discoverable objective founda-

tions for values

and hence the

possibility of arriving at in-

formed and objective value judgments. Objective value norms can be deduced directly from the

104

The Systems View contemporary

of

Man

scientific

understanding of natural systems.

Values are goals which behavior activity

which

some end

is

strives

to realize.

Any

oriented toward the accomplishment of

is

value-oriented activity.

This includes such

brutish things as sonar-guided underwater torpedoes,

which

are self-orienting toward contact with a large metal

body

such as the hull of a ship, and such superlative ones as the

brush strokes of a great painter, which have as their end the realization of a painting

pursues an end

is

value-free.

paradigm of human

on the canvas. Nothing

Even

that

science, that oft-cited

turned out in the light

objectivity,

of recent investigations to be value-oriented not merely in

the general sense of pursuing truth, but also in the specific

sense of pursuing certain selected avenues toward the grasp of truth. There

is

nothing in the sphere of culture which

would exempt man from the realm of values floating around, ready to

—no

facts

be grasped without valuations and

expectations.

of

Even more importantly, there is nothing in all the realms natural systems which would be value-free when looked

at

from the vantage point of the systems themselves. Natural

systems exploit the permissiveness of the physical universe in gathering in themselves order

and usable energy

at the

expense of disorder and entropy in their environment.

While the environment of such systems runs down, they themselves remain in steady-states and can even grow and organize themselves.

If

you happen

—

we all are you find yourself You must keep yourself running

as

physical decay of

all things,

and

to

be one such system

with very definite goals.

to

the necessary repairs, including (if

against the odds of the

do

so

you must perform

you are a very complex

system) the ultimate one of replacing your entire system by

105

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD reproducing

common

from one special part of

it

it.

These are values

some form or

to all natural systems, shared in

another by suborganic, organic, and supraorganic systems alike.

for

No

system

is

free to reject these values for very long,

any change or reversal would

of probability, in

its

own

result,

with a high degree

disorganization.

But how these values are manifested depends on the

and hierarchical

specific characteristics

Whereas

all

natural systems share a

level of

each system.

common

value basis,

the form in which these values are manifested differs from level to level

of system

is

and species to

highly diversified

And when

species.

among

its

a species

members, allowing

for great internal variability of such things as nervous functions

and consequent behavior, further

specifications

about within the membership of the species

most

strikingly the case with

value base of the

men

all

human

beings.

natural systems, and

we

itself.

come

This

is

We do have the specify

it

to

fit

human level. And we do have the value basis of all but we specify it to fit our own individual thoughts

and purposes. There kind:

it is

but not a bottomless

measured against objective natural standards.

Contemporary

number

relativity here,

is

cultural anthropologists are specifying a

of fundamental universal values, shared by

everywhere.

The same

men

basic values of survival, mutual col-

laboration, the raising of children, the worship of trans-

cendent

entities,

and avoidance of

pain, are manifested different ways.

The

by

all cultures, albeit

If

106

we

and

often in radically

surface forms differ, but the depth

structures are isomorphic. logical, social,

suffering, injustice,

Man

pursues his ends as a bio-

and cultural being, wherever he

lives.

survey the conclusions that emerge from these

The Systems View findings,

we

Man

of

find that the objective basic values of

are those which he shares with of us

must

(in the sense that

Each

natural systems.

all

man

he cannot help but) commit

himself to survival, creativity, and mutual adaptation within

a society of his peers; the alternative to these there

no imperative attached

is

is

death. But

to the cultural specification

we can choose according to our we must (in the same sense as above)

of these values. These

Of

insights.

course,

remain within the

limits of general natural-systems values.

Finding and respecting these limits

precisely the

is

problem

facing us today.

To the

believe that

harmony

good equals

virtue in accordance with

was an

early specification of basic

of the soul

natural values.

To

more and bigger

believe that

of everything,

hold that affluence

is

good

omy, or

to believe that

socialist

one,

equals production, with

it

is

if it is

a contemporary view.

based on a capitalist econ-

good only

it is

To

if it is

based on a

are further specifications of contemporary

values. Quite different from materialistic values are those of

Western and Oriental

religions: salvation, love,

and

illumination, nirvana,

and asceticism. By and

large,

ever,

contemporary history

is

made by

as to

which mode of production

is

sure,

lofty

stomach.

On

dence that filled.

ideals

Thus

lofty ideals it,

disagreement

good one, not

human

are not easy to pursue

good.

To be

on an empty

no convincing eviare pursued when the stomach is

the other hand, there

filling

is

the truly

whether production defines the nature of

how-

the contest over the

There

specification of materialistic values.

purity;

is

while necessary,

may

not constitute

our highest value. It is

easy to

criticize.

We

all

know

that the critic always

107

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD seems to know more than the person he remarkable that relatively obscure great statesmen sensitivity. If

just

we

and

critics

criticizes.

It

should outrank

acumen and

scientists in intellectual

take their criticisms at face value, that

what they do. The rub

is

that

it is

is

is

one thing to point

out the weakness of anything and quite another to produce

such a thing. Both are needed, but criticism without con-

becomes

struction

self-defeating: the critic ends

himself into a state of cautious immobility.

We

by boxing must not

stop, therefore, at pointing to the fallacies of existing values:

we must

point out the

undertaking it

is

bound

new and better values. While this have many weak points of its own,

nevertheless has to be done. If he

turtle has to stick

4.

to

is

to survive, even a

out his neck from time to time.

The Norms of Contemporary Humanism

We

are asking about the indicated values of man. Let us

be careful to distinguish between descriptive and normative values.

Man

does have values

When described, they Man does not have,

—

a whole hierarchy of them.

give us a system of descriptive values. in

any meaningful

sense, normative

values apart from these. Normative values (or value norms) are things

we

and pointing fillment.

discover by examining man's characteristics to those values

which could lead him

Hence normative values

to ful-

are not described but pos-

tulated; they are creations of the inquiring intellect.

This

They

is

not to say that normative values are arbitrary.

are present in the sphere of actual valuations as

norms

expressed in various ways and to different approximations.

108

The Systems View

A

Man

of

good example of

heating system.

this is the

you

If

and the mechanism

ordinary thermostat of a

set the controls to sixty-eight

degrees

properly functioning, the actual heat

is

of the house will fluctuate around sixty-eight degrees.

actual heat level

known

like the descriptively

is

The

values of

a culture; the setting of the thermostat corresponds to

its

normative values. The actual values are not fixed to the

norms: they fluctuate around them. There as a separate normative value

ones, just as there

is

intrinsic

the descriptive in the house

There are only actual valuations,

known. But they are regu-

descriptively or introspectively

by

all

no such thing

no separate temperature

for the thermostat setting.

lated

among

is

norms which we can discover by patient

inquiry.

What

are the intrinsic

norms of man? The Greeks had

an answer: they said that the end of the good

life is

happi-

ness. Happiness, Aristotle specified, is the fulfillment of that

which ist

is

human

specifically

temper of Greek

as the element fulfillment

of

in us. Typically for the rational-

civilization, Aristotle identified

which

man

sets

reason

apart from beast, and the

which makes him happy.

We

can accept

the Aristotelian ideas without this particular identification. Self-fulfillment, as

contemporary humanistic thinkers and

psychologists acknowledge,

behavior. of us. It

It is is

is

the pattern of

what can

Individual fulfillment can be a specified

the end of

human

purposeful

the actualization of potentials inherent in

and analyzed

all

be, traced in actuality.

human

value.

And

it

can be

in the systems viewpoint.

Individual fulfillment

is

not the development of one

faculty of the mind, or one part of the soul, as the Greeks

would have

it.

It is

the actualization of any

number and any 109

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD combination of different potentials, according to the tem-

perament and conscious desires of the individual. What fulfilling for

is

one may be constraining for another; we are

make one man's meat another's poison. But we are not entirely different and we can talk of the syndrome of human potentials, out of which the paths of different

enough

to

fulfillment of individual persons are selected. Fulfillment

means the

realization of

human

potentials for existence as

a biological and sociocultural being. well as mental health.

ment

as a biological

whole of

its

It

It

means bodily

means adaptation

as

to the environ-

organism constituting an irreducible

hierarchical parts,

and

as a sociocultural role

carrier collaboratively constituting the

many

multiperson

systems in a given society. Fulfillment also means acting on the environment, both the internal one of the organism

and the external one of the

society,

and making

it

com-

patible with the expression of one's potentials. It calls for

a dynamic process of integration and adjustment, creating conditions for the actualization of in

all

the potential there

is

man. Individual fulfillment

by concrete

human

is

a concrete process, conditioned

factors. It takes place in the

situation, specified as the

framework of the

syndrome of conditions

that defines the existential reality of the given person. It

impossible, however, to specify

norms

is

for every situation in

a general theory. Such can only be the task of applying the theory, with

due regard

to the specifics of the situation.

But we can gain some understanding of the overall type of conditions which specify the

human

half of the twentieth century,

and such understanding can

situation in the latter

enable us to apply general theories in particular cases.

110

The Systems View

of

Man

Let us step back once more and look

minants of the contemporary

at the general deter-

human

from the

situation

systems viewpoint. In the world of organized complexity in terrestrial nature, the arrow of time does not determine

which pathway

is

taken by individual systems, only in what direction their

The general

paths converge.

irreversibilities of natural or-

ganization include the progressive differentiation of existing systems, the merging of smaller systems within large unities

without loss of individuality, and the increased level of

communication among systems on level.

A

level

of

system

their

corollary of these processes

is

the increase in the

super-

the global ecology of nations).

In the

(that

the

amount

by

"signals."

is,

of "noise"

The system

determination on the is

this

means

that

progressively reduced and replaced

is

becomes less open Randomness is on

itself

regular and lawlike.

There

hierarchical

information introduced into the largest

language of modern information theory,

more

own

to chance,

the wane,

rise.

good empirical evidence

that such indeed

is

the

pattern of contemporary development in the sociocultural sphere. Relatively isolated

rated in larger,

communication

and simple groups are incorpo-

more complex

ones, with an increase in the

level of the incorporated units.

systems enter into communication jointly

constitute

still

among

The

larger

themselves, and

higher-level supersystems.

We

are

already approaching the extensive boundaries of the process of international

communication and system building. Fur-

ther development, being unable to proceed extensively, will

take effect intensively. Increasing communication

a

finite

number

of

national

among

and multinational systems 111

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD can only them.

As

among

greater mutual determination

result in

the ratio of noise to signal

reduced through

is

wider channels of effective international communication, the

world becomes more and more is

A

like a single unit.

village

a unit because everyone knows everyone else and takes

a role vis-a-vis the village"

when

rest.

The world

be a true "global

will

similar conditions prevail.

Of

who knows everyone

scale the everyone

individuals, but heads of state

course,

on

else will

that

not be

and heads of corporations

their professional roles. Individuals will

in

be more and more

deeply embedded in complex hierarchical structures. Their interaction will be mediated

by the interaction of the many

which they and

sociocultural unities

jointly form. If this is the case,

woe

to the extent that determination

is

their

primary groups

to the individuals.

For

introduced into the sys-

tems above them, they become determined as cogs in a fixed machinery.

regiment.

To

The more you

the fully regimented

No

—

this

Although

organize, the

create the fully organized society

to create

cog.

a fallacious assessment of the situation.

is

it is

human

more you is

often voiced (most recently by Skinner),

commits one capital

error:

it

conceives of

as basically mechanistic systems.

men and

In the systems view, how-

they are dynamic, not mechanistic, systems:

ever,

determinateness interactions tions.

is

it

society

their

not due to the determination of individual

among

their parts but to their statistical correla-

In relatively simple mechanisms each part receives

an input which gives

rise to

an output

in

one way and one

You press a lever here, and up pops a tab there. No matter how many parts have been involved in the chain way

only.

of events

112

—

gears, springs, shafts, etc.

—

the effect

is

deter-

The Systems View

of

Man

minate because each part transmits the determined way. is

one part refuses

If

broken and the tab

fails to

pop up

effect in a rigorously

to cooperate, the chain

at the end.

Natural systems, however, are not at

and outputs

are correlations between their inputs

what you press and what pops up ministic ones.

something

like

—but

The components

all like this.

of natural systems form

democracies in which

particular

them.

fulfill

component

It

—between

these are not deter-

it is

agreed that certain

functions will be carried out, but where volunteers to

There

it

is

left

up

carries out a task.

function a component performs

is

What

particular

also determined

kinds of functions performed by the others. There

is

by the a high

degree of internal plasticity within any natural system.

system as a whole parts

is

not. This

is

is

to

matters not in the least which

The

determinate, but the relationship of the

not the mechanistic determinism of old-

fashioned behavioral scientists, but the flexible, dynamic

"macrodetermination" conception of contemporary systems biologists, psychologists,

When

and

social scientists.

a macrodeterministic system becomes a component

in a system of its peers, its cooperative relations with its

fellow systems take parts,

on the character of

and the system they

mination.

Hence

there

of indeterminacy)

is

and determination on the structure.

There

is

jointly constitute acquires deter-

freedom

on the

(i.e.,

level of the

is

atom

as an integrated

such freedom on the level of molecules

in a gas, but determination

there

a significant degree

level of electrons in the atom,

on the

volume, and temperature of the gas similar

plasticity typical of

freedom on the

level of the pressure, itself.

level of cells within a

And

there

is

a

body, although

determination on the level of the body

itself. If

you 113

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD cut your finger is

it

will bleed

and subsequently

heal, but

it

not prescribed by any law of your physiology which par-

ticular cells are to

certain

On

form the epidermal

number of them do the

so in a certain time sequence.

contemporary multiperson systems,

of

level

macrodetermination

layer, only that a

is

even more

striking.

tions, universities, social organizations,

take on determinate structure, and

we

and

We

see corpora-

political

regimes

see that this structure

mem-

does not impose mechanistic determinacy on their

have openings for certain kinds

bers. Sociocultural systems

of roles

—from

presidents to shoeshine boys. Persons with

adequate qualifications can

fill

the jobs, regardless of their

unique individuality. Roles are not made for given individuals, but for kinds of individuals classed according to qualification.

When

the roles are

sonality of each

new

with others, and

it

tenant

is

filled,

the particular per-

reflected in his interrelations

produces corresponding

organizational structure. There

is flexibility

shifts

within the

within any sys-

tem, as part adjusts to part.

Yet there and that itself.

is

That

is

something which remains relatively constant,

the kind of function performed by the system is

changeable too, but more gradually.

And

it is

subject to pressures both from within and from the outside,

and

it

changes as a function of a balance between them.

due to such

plasticity that

viable under

new

complex systems can remain

circumstances. Totally mechanistic sys-

tems have only two

work

It is

states:

a functional one where

in the rigorously determined

all

manner, and a

parts

failing

one where one or more parts have broken down. They lack the plasticity of natural systems, which act as dynamic, self-

repairing wholes in regard to any deficiency.

114

The Systems View

The

of

Man

inverse side of macrodetermination

functional

is

autonomy. The functional autonomy of parts within a natural system adds up to the macrodetermination of the

whole. Hence functional autonomy does not

mean

inde-

pendence.

A

would not

constitute a system, only a heap. Systemicity

fully

imposed as a

set of rules

binding the parts

set of units is

among them-

But these rules do not constrain the parts

selves.

in

autonomous (independent)

to act

one way and one way only; they merely prescribe that

certain types of functions are carried out in certain se-

quences.

number

The

parts have options; as long as a sufficient

of sufficiently qualified units carries out the pre-

scribed tasks, the requirements of systemic determination are met.

We can now appreciate why even an increasingly determinate hierarchy of social systems fulfillment. Fulfillment

is

is

not contrary to individual

predicated upon the freedom to

—

become what one is capable of being functional autonomy of human beings in

dom

is

a real possibility, although at present

fully realized.

upon

is,

Such

it is

the

free-

nowhere

Today's sociocultural systems are not entirely

mechanistic, but

Some

that

society.

some are more mechanistic than others. become the

designate the first-born of the leader to

next leader, and thus exercise a mechanistic preselection of the

fulfillment

pathways for that individual. There are

others which force persons to of

personal choices,

politics,

and

fill

specific roles regardless

whether in business, marriage, or

they, too, are mechanistic to a corresponding

extent.

Consider a system of national defense based on picking the male offspring of families Smith, Jones, Barker, and

115

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD

Baker to

man

to a given

the ramparts from a given day in one year

day

this

manner, but

freedom on the individual

quota

is

and

level

filled.

Now

an element of chance is

not determined in advance

is

drafted from

among

ences,

and

enters,

that a certain

flexible.

since

number

made more

has only been

For the system

still

on some individuals regardless of

it still

until the

a certain age group. But the mecha-

of the system

random, not more certain fate

level

drafted for military duty

—only

is

rigidity

may no

on the

full rigidity

male offspring born on a certain date

whether any given individual

nistic

defenses

at the cost of personal

Such a mechanistic system can be revised

of the society. to draft

The necessary

in another.

doubt be secured in

obtains a fixed

number

imposes a

their prefer-

of soldiers.

Full natural-system macrodetermination based on the functional

autonomy

of individuals can be achieved in re-

gard to national defense when the draft system

is

abolished

and replaced by an all-volunteer army. Of course,

abolish-

ing such a system before there are sufficient volunteers to

form an adequate army means the impairment of the defense capacities of the society, hence a malfunction on the level of the whole. it

But when the society

is

so structured that

offers channels of self-fulfillment within the ranks of

defensive forces for a sufficient proportion of

its

its

population,

then the society can exhibit macrodetermination based on the functional

Here

lies

autonomy

of individual persons.

the crux of the problem of our times.

We

are

faced with the following variables: increasing communication

—hence determination—on

the macrolevel of sociocul-

tural systems, great differentiation

tudes and

116

potentials,

among

individual apti-

and the value of individual human

The Systems View

Our humanistic

fulfillment.

goal

is

enhance individual

to

an increasingly deterministic multilevel society

fulfillment in

composed

Man

of

of greatly differentiated individuals. This

feasible endeavor.

and

institutions

Like

all

is

a

complex natural systems, human

societies function best

when

they are spon-

taneous expressions of the freely chosen activities of their interrelated

members. Such a society

is

the

norm

against

which we must measure our existing forms of

social

structure.

What

is

needed

is

in reference to the flexible

a reorientation of our cultural values

norms of individual

and dynamic

social system.

must have access both cally discovered

To

to empirical data

norms of individuals

fulfillment in

set

and

is,

we

such a goal

to the theoreti-

in society.

Empirical

data are like the readings on a thermometer. They

what the case

a

tell

us

but not whether it is desirable. Theoretically

discovered norms are comparable to finding the setting of

They tell us how closely the actual values approximate the norms intrinsic to the system. We need both the readings and the norms a knowledge of actual valuations as well as of normative values. For only if we know both where we are and where we want to go can a thermostat.

—

we

act purposively in seeing about getting there.

unlike the

if,

who didn't want to travel because she we cannot be content to stay where we

little girl

was already are,

And

there,

our knowledge of objective norms achieves paramount

importance.

The Western world tends as the

panacea for

all

to offer the values of affluence

social

superannuated. In their place

ills.

These values are now

we must propose

positive,

humanistic values. Humanistic values, discovered in the

117

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD systems perspective of

man and

nature, are not arbitrary

goals but natural norms, encoded in every natural system.

But they are overlaid by diverse cultural value objectives and hence, in times of urgency, they need to be consciously rediscovered. If they are found and adopted,

man

will again

exercise his powers of adaptive innovation in maintaining

himself and his culture within the thresholds of compatibility

with the dynamic and balanced multilevel hierarchy of terrestrial nature.

It is

time to take stock of our findings and theories.

Empirical knowledge

live in critical times.

is

We

no longer a

topic for academic discussion but an issue of public concern. Fortunately, the natural philosophy of the in the

which are meaningful for man and helpful finding the

way

anthropocentric, but

of nature it is

man

and

is

clearly norjr,

man

all that. It

one species of system

is

complex and embracing hierarchy of nature, and

same time

intrinsic worth.

and

as guideposts in

not nonhumanistic for

allows us to understand that

the

trends

to a humanistic future.

The systems view

in a

new

contemporary sciences gives us a body of theories

it

us that

tells

They

all

are goal-oriented, self-maintaining,

self-creating expressions of nature's

and adjustment. The mitting the

amoeba

at

systems have value and

status of

man

is

as his kin, nor

penchant for order

not lessened by ad-

by recognizing

that

sociocultural systems are his supersystems. Seeing himself as a connecting link in a

complex natural hierarchy cancels

man's anthropocentrism, but seeing the hierarchy

an expression of self-ordering and bolsters his self-esteem

118

and encourages

self-creating his

itself as

nature

humanism.

The Systems View

We may

not be the center of the universe and the telos

of evolution, but

processes

Man

of

in

we

are concrete

particular

their

we

albeit accidentally,

embodiments of cosmic

terrestrial

did happen to evolve a most remark-

able property: self- reflection. In virtue of this

among verse

And,

variation.

we may be

the very few species of natural systems in the uni-

which are able not only

respond to

it,

know

but to

their

to

the world and

sense

own

sensations and

come

to reasoned conclusions about the nature of the universe.

To be

a

man

of getting to lives. It is

is

thus to have the almost unique opportunity

know

oneself

and the world

in

which one

surely shortsighted to disregard this opportunity

and confine oneself

solely to the business of living.

A failure to exploit our capability for rational knowledge is,

moreover, contrary to the business of

species

may

living.

not be capable of existing for long without the

use of rational insights in guiding

its

own

destiny.

knowledge has made us increasingly autonomous and enabled us to create the worlds of us from

many

error

is

the price

own we pay for

Our

in nature,

culture. It has freed

of the bonds of biological existence

us license to determine our ity of

For our

and given

evolution. But the possibil-

freedom. The worlds

we

build for ourselves can be manifold, but they must remain

compatible with nature.

We

the

structured

hierarchy

can build worlds beyond these

our immediate

peril.

Any

of

terrestrial

limits only at

such error must be rectified by

using the same capacities which originally led to the error:

our relative autonomy in nature, conferred by conscious and rational knowledge.

Here

is

where the integrated natural philosophy of the

evolving sciences of our time becomes important.

It

locates

119

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD us within the multiple structures of nature and enables us to

make

constructive use of our large technological capa-

Immersed

cities.

we

sphere,

in the

hierarchies of the bio-

we

As we manipulate

the

have enormous control organs and

immense

are nevertheless masters of our destiny, for

cells of

capabilities.

our body through medicines and sur-

many strands of social and ecological relations around us. We know fairly clearly what constitutes organic health for our biological system; now we gery, so

we can manipulate

the

must likewise learn the norms of our manifold ecologic, economic,

and cultural systems.

political,

challenge of our age objective

to specify,

is

and

learn to respect, the

norms of existence within the complex and

cately balanced hierarchic order that

around

us.

For there

natural philosophy of the

sciences lated,

it

is

is

a systems philosophy.

our future

to

we

in the

properly articu-

is

an opportunity we

it

in determining

cannot afford to miss. For

do, another chapter of terrestrial evolution will

an end, and

its

come

unique experiment with rational con-

sciousness will be written off as a failure.

120

we

can give us both factual and normative knowledge.

Exploring such knowledge and applying

if

that

new developments

When

deli-

both in us and

no other way to make sure is viable and humanistic.

is

achieve a culture that

The

The supreme

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Stars

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The View From a Distant Star: Man's Future York: Harper & Row, 1963. (P)

Press, 1958.

(P)

in the Universe.

New York: Wiley, 1957. (S) The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge, Mass.: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1969. (S) Sinnott, Edmund W. The Biology of the Spirit. New York: Viking Press,

Simon, Herbert A. Models of Man. .

1955. (B)

The Problem of Organic Form. University Press, 1963. (B) .

New

Haven, Conn.:

Sorokin, Pitirim A. Sociological Theories of Today.

& Row,

New

Yale

York: Harper

1966. (So)

Stanley-Jones, D., and K. Stanley-Jones.

Systems:

A

Study

in Patterns of Control.

The Kybernetics of Natural New York: Pergamon, 1960.

(B) (ed.). Communication: General Semantics Perspectives. York: Spartan, 1970. (Cm)

Thayer, Lee

New

(ed.). Communication: The Ethical and Moral York: Gordon and Breach, in press. (Cm)

Issues.

Thorpe, W. H. Learning and Instinct in Animals. London: Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963. (B) Tinbergen, Nikolaas. Social Behavior in Animals. London:

New

Methuen; Methuen,

1953. (B)

125

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD Waddington, C. H. (ed.). Towards a Theoretical Biology. Chicago: Aldine, 1970. (B) Walter, W. Grey. The Living Brain. London and New York: Norton, 1953. (B) Weiss, Paul A. Dynamics of Development: Experiments and Inferences. New York: Academic Press, 1968. (B) (ed.). Hierarchically Organized Systems in Theory and Practice. New York: Hafner Publishing Co., 1971. (S) Werner, Heinz. Comparative Psychology of Mental Development. New York: International Universities Press, 1957. (Ps) Whitehead, Alfred North. The Concept of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920. (Ph) Science and the Modern World. New York: Macmillan, 1925. .

(Ph) .

Symbolism,

Its

Meaning and

Effect.

New

York: Macmillan,

1927. (Ph)

Whorf, Benjamin Lee. Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of B. L. Whorf. Edited by John B. Carroll. New York: Wiley, 1956. (L)

Whyte, Lancelot Law. The Next Development Mentor Books, 1950. (A) .

in

Unitary Principles in Physics and Biology.

Man. New York:

New

York: Henry

Holt, 1949. (Ph)

A. G. Wilson and D. Wilson (eds.). Hierarchical Structures. York: American Elsevier, 1969. (S) Wiener, Norbert. The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1954. (C) Woodger, Joseph H. Biological Principles. New York: Humanities, 1966. (B) Biology and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952. (B) ,

New

.

126

Index

Abstract thinking 92, 95

Business organizations 64f., 72,

Actualization of potentials 109,

110 Adaptation 41, 74, 75, 110, 120

Aging 42

Amoeba

Cannon 41 Capitalism 102

22, 70, 88

Carbon

Analysis 6

7,

31,60

Cat 92

Anthropocentric

view

84,

85,

118

Categories 21, 22, 30

Catholic Church 61, 62

Aristotle 109

Cell 31, 37, 69,70, 88, 90, 113

Art 85, 96, 101 Artificial

Chance

52, 116 Change, forms of 47

systems 93, 94

Astrophysics 53

Atom

73

Characteristics of parts 8

31, 38, 39, 52, 57, 68, 69,

83,88,89, 113

Atomic number 54 Atomic theory 30, 38, 39 Atomistic thinking

4, 5,

Atomistic view

79

3f.,

19

Attraction (gravity) 81, 82

Characteristics of wholes 8, 29,

30 Child 24, 25 Christianism 102 Civilizations 63

Closed systems 36

Communication

(human)

63,

71,72,92, 111, 116 Bees 89

Communication

Behaviorism 79

81,84, 111 Complexity 11, 13, 32, 52, 54, 58, 60, 67

Beliefs 98,

Bergson

99

1

Bertalanffy,

Biology

von 14

1

Computer

(of parts)

33,

94

93,

Consciousness 72, 79, 85f., 91f.,

Biosphere 60, 86, 120 Black hole 55f

Constancies 41

Body (human) 10

Continuum 81

103

Brain 32

Corporations

Buhler 32

Criteria of life

7, 10, 72, 73,

114

22

127

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD Cro-Magnon 96

Feeling 85, 93, 98, 99

Crystals 83

Flows 80, 81 Frankl 97

Cultural anthropology 104, 106

Culture

7, 61, 63, 97, 99f., 118f.

Freedom

51, 75, 112, 113, 119

Friendship 28

De

Function (of systems) 20, 21, 82, 114

Gaulle 10

Descriptive values 108, 109

Determinacy

vs.

Determination

freedom

1 1

culture

of

2f 99,

Functional autonomy 115, 116

Future shock 65

lOOf.

Dialectic 28

Disorganization 34, 36

Dog

89

Galileo 10 General concept 24, 25 General systems theory 14

Generalization 20, 23

Driesch 11

Genes 47 Earth-sun system 36

Global system 84

Ecology 37, 43, 71

Global village 65, 112 Goals (of systems) 105, 118

Economic systems 45, 62 Economics 8, 11,45, 102

Goldstein 32

Ecosystem 71

Gravity 54, 58

Einstein 81

Greek

Electron

31,54, 69, 83, 113 Electron bombardment 39

Group

Elements 53, 55

Group psychology 29

7,

Emergence of order vi

Energy 22, 30, 34f., 40, 43, 58, 80,83 Entropy 34, 35, 38, 52, 53 Environment (of systems) 20 34,41, 105, 110 Equilibrium 45, 46

44

Happiness 109 Healing 42, 114 Health 110 Heaps 27, 28 Heat 38, 39 Helium 5, 53 Hierarchy 61, 66, 67-74, 79, 82, 91, 115, 118f.

History 100

Euclid 53 Evolution 46f.,

80f., 97, 99, 111,

120

Homeostasis 41

Human potentials

Excitation (atomic) 39

Humanism

Exclusion principle 53, 54 Experience 10, 21, 96

Humanistic values

128

102

characteristics 7, 29, 33,

48f., 57, 74,

81

Empirical concept

civilization 101,

Hydrogen

110

108f. 1

17f.

5, 31, 53f.,

69

Index Hypothesis

vi, vii,

Magnetic

26, 27

Hypothetico-deductive method

26

56 37, 38, 42,

79-120

Marx 102 Maslow 32

Individuals 7, 25, 29, 33, 42, 51,

Materialistic values 102, 107

Mather 52

64, 109, 112, 115f.

Matter 21, 30, 31,53, 54, 57, 81

Information 41, 47, 83, 110 Innovation 49, 52, 65, 1 18

knowledge

Integrated

field 55,

5, 12, 19, 21f.,

70f.,

Individuality 6

4,

McLuhan 65 119,

120

Mechanistic determinism

1

13f.

Mechanistic systems 112

Integrated order 52, 54, 82 Integration of function 68, 70,

Interactions 11, 112

Interface

Meson 56 Method of systems

science 13,

26 Molecule 31, 68, 69, 83, 113 Monitoring capacity 9 If., 95, 98

90 Intelligence 96 73, 74,

70f.,

Man

coordination

67,

68,

Motorists 9

Mutation 49

79

Myth

Invariance 20f., 96

101

Invariance of organization 21,

22,27

Nation

Irreducibility 8, 12, 27f., 32, 58,

74

10, 23, 64,

Natural philosophy

Isolated system 35, 36

Language 71,

viii,

4,

23f., 29, 33, 34,

37, 38, 46f., 59, 91,97, 105f.,

85, 92,

96

Levels 13, 30, 53, 58, 67, 74, 79,

83 Life 21 f.

cosmos 59

Life principle

vii,

119 Natural system

Keynes 103

Life in

110

National defense 115, 116

1

113 118 Nature 12, 13, 19-75, 80f., 118, 119 Nervous system 87, 89, 90, 91 Neuron 32 Neutron 7, 31, 56 Neutron star 55, 56

Light 66

Newton 10

Living and nonliving 22

Newtonian science

11,

15,

58,

102

Lobachevsky 53 Love 28

Normative values 104, 108, 109,

Macrodeterminism 113f.

Nuclear

117f. fission 54,

89

129

THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE WORLD Nuclear transmutation 38, 39, 53 Nucleic acid 83 Nucleon 83

Primitive societies 63, 64

Production 102, 103 Progress 103

Proton 31, 56 Protosciences 10

Psychology 29, 32 Pulsar 56

Objective norms 104, 106

Ontogenesis 47

Open system 37, 39, 40 Organic phenomena 30, 58,69 Organism

31, 40,

Quantum

theory 11,54

Quarks 30, 83 31, 40, 41, 44, 58, 60,

71,79, 83, 87f. Organization 20, 32, 35, 36, 54,

57,67 Organizational features (of natural systems)

Organized

Reason 98, 99, 109 Reductionism

24, 25,

complexity

27-74

12,

15,

24,25,27,58, 110

20, 30

8, 9, 19,

Reform 70 Relation of parts

29

7, 8, 12, 13,

Relativity of values 104, 106

56

Relativity theory 11,

Religion 101, 107

Reproduction 42

Paradigm 4 Pareto 45 Particulars

Riemann 53 Rigorous knowledge 3,4, 19

20

Parts It, 15,

61,67,72,79, 115

Pattern-maintenance 44, 45

Science

v,

vi,

20; contemporary

Pecking order 7 Permissible energy bands 7

20,

Personality

(human) 32

Philosophy 101

71;

27,

19; classical

3, 5,

Pauli 53

102; trends in

vi, vii, 6, 8,

modern vii,

10,

11,

5

4,

Self-awareness 86, 91, 93, 119 Self-creativity 46, 47, 118

Phylogenesis 47

Self-evolving nets 48f ., 65

Physics 11, 30, 31

Self-fulfillment

109,

110,

115,

117

Piaget 95

Self-maintenance 34-46

Piecemeal analysis 6 Plan of evolution 48, 52

Self-regulation 37, 41f.

Plants 87f.

Sensations 86, 88, 90f., 96, 119

Plato 28

Sensitivity

Policy 73

Sign 92, 96

Political systems 62,

Prediction 9, 42

130

73

88

Simon 67 Simplicity 13

Index Simplification 6, 19

Technology 102

Skinner 112

Theories of science

Skepticism 104 Smith,

Adam

102

13,

34f.

Social reality 61, 62

Thermostat 109 Three-body problem 5

Social relations 71 Social systems 61f., 72, 84,

1

14f.

Society 9, 37, 45, 90, 112, 117

Spaceship earth 66

Topological theory of evolution

48 Transformation of means and ends 98

Space-time 53, 56, 80f. Specialists 3f., 13

Tropism 88

3f.,

64

Twain,

Species 42, 43, 71, 106 Stability 38, 39,

10,

Thermodynamics, second law of

Social development 64, 65

Specialization

vi,

19,26

Two

Mark

5

cultures 101

60

Star 38, 40, 55f., 82 State

Ultimate system 50

10,23,61,64

Uniformity of nature 59 United Nations 66

Steady-state 37, 43, 83 Stellar evolution 55,

Structure

8,

12,

56

13, 20, 21, 38,

Substance (philosophical) 20 Substance (physical) 31, 32, 37, 40, 43, 83 14, 36,

37

Supersystem formation 50, 74,79, 82, 110

Valence 54

Value judgment 97 Value norms 104, 108, 109, 117, 118, 120 Virus 22

60f.,

Supraorganic phenomena 30, 33,

43,44,61,71 Survival 40, 42, 97 71, 92, 95,

80f.,

Value reorientation 117

36, 38,43, 55

Symbol

53f.,

Uranium 54

Subjectivity 87f.

Suborganic phenomena 30, 38, 52, 58, 68

Sun

(cosmos)

119

39,41f., 53f., 68, 75 82

Subsystem

Universe

96

System, concept of 19f.

Systems approach 14 Systems sciences 10, 13 Systems view 3-15, 19f. 79f.

War 62 Wave 39,

82

Weaver 12 White dwarfs 55 Whitehead 13,47,91 Wholes 6f., 19, lit., 61,67, 72 World organizations 66 World view vf., 4, 27, 62 131

ERVIN LASZLO

View

Bl of the

A

pioneer of systems thinking in philosophy,

Ervin Laszlo

is

tegrator in real

Born

in

national

an interdisciplinarian and life

Budapest

fame

in-

as well as in his writings.

in

1932, he achieved inter-

as concert

pianist

in

his

early

teens, then turned to science and philosophy a few years later in his search for a better under-

man and his world. He has degrees music from the Franz Liszt Academy Budapest, and in philosophy from the Sorbonne in Paris (Docteur es-Lettres). He has been Restanding of in

ii

search Associate in

at the

University of Fribourg

Switzerland,. Visiting Fellow

Visiting Professor at Indiana universities. Currently

losophy

at

he

is

One Park A venue

New

York. N.Y. 10016

Yale,

and

Professor of Phi-

the State University of

College of Arts and Science

GEORGE BRAZILLER

at

and Northwestern

at

New

York's

Geneseo. Dr.

is the author of eight books, including most recent Introduction to Systems Philosophy which opens up the fertile field of systems research for contemporary philosophy.

Laszlo

his