Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research. The term does not yet have a well-established, precise meaning, but systems theory can reasonably be considered a specialization of systems thinking, a generalization of systems science, a systems approach. The term originates from Bertalanffy's general system theory (GST) and is used in later efforts in other fields, such as the action theory of Talcott Parsons and the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann.
In this context the word systems is used to refer specifically to self-regulating systems, i.e. that are self-correcting through feedback. Self-regulating systems are found in nature, including the physiological systems of our body, in local and global ecosystems, and in climate—and in human learning processes.
Read more about Systems Theory: Overview, History
Other articles related to "systems theory, systems, theory, system":
... Other fieldworks use systems theory concepts and ecological considerations to understand the shaman's lore ... Reichel-Dolmatoff relates these concepts to developments in the ways that modern science (systems theory, ecology, new approaches in anthropology and archeology) treats ...
... Systems science is an interdisciplinary field of science that studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science ... Systems sciences covers formal sciences fields like complex systems, cybernetics, dynamical systems theory, and systems theory, and applications in ...
... Cape Town, South Africa, integrated the key concepts of the systems and related fields, together with their unique theoretical contributions, into a coherent meta-theory ... The theory is also unique in having a graphic alphabet with which it can be explained visually ...
... critique of the Trading World of Asia and English East India Company wrote “Systems analysis receives prominent attention ... He writes of the Company as a trading system, one in which the decision-rules employed by management can be mapped to a sequence of physical inputs and outputs ... Systems analysis enables him to test statistically a series of hypotheses, such as "average costs are a decreasing function of the volume of trade, the cost price of goods, and of time, with an associated ...
... Systems Theory in Anthropology is an interdisciplinary, non-representative, non-referential, and non-Cartesian approach that brings together natural and social sciences to understand ... The basic idea of a system theory in social science is to solve the classical problem of duality mind-body, subject-object, form-content, signifier-sig ... System theory, therefore, suggests that instead of creating closed categories into binaries (subject-object) the system should stay open so as to allow ...
Famous quotes containing the words theory and/or systems:
“Psychotherapy—The theory that the patient will probably get well anyway, and is certainly a damned ijjit.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“No civilization ... would ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors, more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)