General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (Revised Edition)

The value of the work is twofold. First, the presentation of General System Theory in and of itself and second, Bertalanffy himself providing a method of thinking by taking the reader through his own process of getting to General System Theory.I read this book knowing that some of it would be outdated, however since I was unfamiliar with the field I assumed that would be fine. I think I was, there are obviously new developments in this field, but I think this works provides a good foundation.The chapters are repetitive as it's clearly explained in the book itself because it's a collection of works by Bertalanffy that were previously published in academic journals. I actually found that to be helpful, as I gained from reading the same theory from a different perspective each time, biology, physics, psychology etc.Bertalanffy is writing for an academic audience in these journals, expecting that his audience has the same educational background in a variety of fields like he does. He expects the reader to be familiar with differential equations and other math. I didn't find this to be a problem, other than one of expectations, like any academic level work, expect to spend some time with a dictionary and an encyclopedia. I found myself skimming through equations, then going back to them for a seconds or third reading then looking them up on the internet for more details. He also frequently uses words in French, German, Latin, often without translation.

This book is for people interested in interdisciplinary research from a theoretical point of view. It is like a time machine to allow a look through the eyes of Bertalanffy to the 1960's and the prevailing scientific views at that time. Above all, this is due to the 'special' style the book is writen. With 'special' I mean, that Bertalanffy does not write completely factual and impersonal but more emotional.All in all, this book does not provide you with solutions to problems but gives you the ability after reading to ask questions you could not ask before because you did not know the problem at all. For me, it was really interesting to contrast the ideas discussed in the book with our current state of knowlegde over 50 years later (the book covers the work of Bertalanffy from 1930's - 1960's). I recommend this book to everyone interested in foundations of basic research in physics, chemistry, biology and pschology, it should be a must read.

I've looked high and low for a text summarizing systems theory and I write this review in near shock having just finished this book. I say "shock" because I just can't believe how remarkably undated this book is after nearly 40 years (first edition 1969). I've read books by Checkland, Lazlo, Weinberg and many others but nothing summarizes the systems world view better than this classic. You've gotta love a scientist/philosopher who quotes Aldous Huxley liberally. I'd give it six stars if I could.

"General Systems Theory" by Von Bertalanffy is according to Google scholar cited by over 3000 scientific papers. That should be a really special book! It turns out to be not that special IMHO and I will start with some general remarks. 1.) The style of writing is extremely verbose and repetitive. 2.) Occasional math is used to explain a system of (partial) differential equations (with awe Von Bertalanffy references Volterra). However, there is no math backing up anything worth the term "general system theory". 3.) A lot of awkward sentences about German (open systems) versus American (cybernetic systems) science, the latter being inferior. E.g. "I have looked in vain into leading American texts even to find the terms "open system", "steady state" and "irreversible thermodynamics"." 4.) Old ideas about terms like "mechanism", "robot", etc. Do not read this book if you are a roboticist or an artificial intelligence researcher...Chapters. Usual intro, then: chapter 2. "The meaning of general systems theory." The author describes how this theory of "wholeness" is not vague... It is beyond conventional, mechanistic physics in being an open system and beyond cybernetics with their homeostatic (not open...) stimulus-response / feedback systems. General systems theory allows - instead - for equifinality (Ashby's homeostat), organization, and unity of science. Chapter 3. "Some system concepts [...]". Here the allometric equation is introduced, apparently the most significant contribution of the author to science. It means that some characteristic, say the length of an organ, can be expressed as a power function of another characteristic, say the weight of the entire organism. I am still in shock that that was considered science. Of course such correlations exist, but does these teach us anything about the systems under investigation? Chapter 4. "Advanced in general systems theory". No equations here. It briefly lists what were at the time new areas of research, like systems engineering, personality theory, and theoretical history (mainly that). Chapter 5. "The organism considered as a physical system". One or two equations describing the influx and spending of energy in an organism. Equifinality corresponds to organisms reaching the same weight after different growth trajectories (thanks to being an open system). Chapter 6. "The model of open system". Some tables with turnover rates of cellular metabolism.Chapter 7. "Some aspects of system theory in biology". One of the more thorough parts in the book. Open systems are contrasted with feedback systems. Closed systems generally tend toward equilibrium states in an asymptotic approach. In contrast, in open systems, phenomena of false start and overshoot may occur, but they may attain a time-independent (steady, equifinal) state, 'Fliessgleichgewicht'. Realize that this book is written many years after PID control (from the 40s), the author has no excuse for not knowing that overshoot in PID controllers (feedback systems) is absolutely possible. Here, again some tables are shown with regression factors of e.g. "intake of water" (ml/hr) versus body weight, or "breath duration" (hr) versus body weight, or "sulphur output (g/hr) versus body weight (for mammals). Chapter 8. "The system concept in the sciences of man." No comments. Chapter 9. "General systems theory in psychology and psychiatry." I quote: "American psychology in the first half of the 20th century was dominated by the concept of the reactive organism, or, more dramatically, by the model of man as a robot." The author tells how homeostasis does not explain mental illnesses (duh!) and wanders off into symbolism as a.) being unique for mankind (as opposed to animals), b.) going beyond the predominant robot philosophy (of reactive systems). 10.) "The relativity of categories". This is not about category theory. It's about Whorf and that our (mathematical) concepts might be colored by our type of language (Hopi). The author concludes with the idea of "progressive de-anthropomorphization" in which we gradually get rid of the human perspective on biology and culture.I would recommend instead: A.) "Life Itself" by Rosen if you like an old book like this with a general story about what it means to be an "organism" or "system", B.) Scientific papers (Slotine) on (partial) contraction theory if you want to know more about "equilibrium" (chapter 7). C.) Papers on symbol grounding, language grounding (Steels, Vogt), or embodiment (Bongard). Science had to rediscover that symbolic systems need to be reactive and have feedback loops through the environment (anti-thesis of chapter 9). D.) Physics. A random current book on modern physics will tell you more about "irreversible thermodynamics" then Von Bertalanffy does.This book I can only recommend for people interested in history.

This is has been a very enlightening read. I brought this book for a paper I'm writing in school. I brought it as an eBook so that I could keep digital notes and do quick searches in the book. However, the Kindle formatting sucks. What right does Amazon have to change the way APA formatting is done? Why should I include "kindle" in my APA formatting? I may search for other book sellers to purchase my eBooks through. Those that provide the eBook in pdf format.

Needed a references for a paper on open system organizations, worked as expected lol.

Understanding systems of the world is within your grasp, this book explains the concept intensively and opens way to see much more in ordinary things and relate so much to concepts we never would have otherwise applied. This book has helped me understand other topics that I wasn't very strong in.

Basically the bible of System Theory. A must read primer and reference for the field of Systems Theory.

A classic I have enjoyed reading - book was as described and arrived in the expected time-frame. Would use vendor again.

Let's get this out of the way first - I really like and enjoy both the book and the principles behind it. The idea of a general system theory (GST), which transcends the mechanistic worldview and moves more towards an organistic one, where bits are not broken down for individual analysis only but where a synthesis is attempted as well, and where a holistic view needs to be taken for a comprehensive understanding of a system are all beyod reproach.The author shows examples of some general systemic principles, which apply in vastly different fields of science, and which while similar in principle, were derived largely independently. These should form the basis of GST as a discipline.On top of that, the book has several other endearing and interesting characteristics. Von Bertalanffy was certainly aware off and mentions Kuhn's ideas quite a bit. A specific element to be found throughout the book shows how painfully aware the author is of the implications of Kuhn's work - basically that if a theory does not hit the Zeitgeist, it will vanish irrespective of its superior explanatory power, or at best languish somewhere out of the limelight. Namely the author is quite aware that the mechanistic view of things still holds sway (at the time of writing, and to a large extent 4 decades later as well) over Anglosaxon thought and in the related academic circles. At the time of writing there still was a very strong Germanic tradition, much more suited to the GST approach, which he tries to bind more closely (almost all the concepts he presents, he uses German words for, in order to cement the link). With time this tradition weakened somewhat and this was also reflected in the popularity of the theory.The other problem is that of the writings being too complex and requiring too much background knowledge, education and thinking capacity to still be popular in the more modern, one minute manager type of world.It is in many ways still a relevant guide of how to reform both science, our knowledge systems and ways of making decisions more broadly, however I think that it is now even further at the fringe than it was at the time von Bertalanffy first postulated it.On a practical note, a criticism I find is the relative doggedness one needs to bring to reading it - even though the author had spent several decades living and working in Canada when this was written, the same overcomplex Germanic writing style is used, which in many ways unduly limited the readership the ideas finally managed to spread to. In hindsight some of the areas developed in very different directions from those the author deemed necessary or most promising as well (gestalt psychology), making some aspects of the book a bit dated, when it is read now.Irrespective of that, I think it is a highly valuable contribution to the intellectual fabric of the 20th century and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in cybernetics, holistic thinking, systemic thinking, system dynamics or control theory.

What is the difference between general systems theory and what is nowadays described as systems theory? The basic model in both cases seem to be systems of differential equations, and where Bertalanffy have high hopes for how the study of such systems can provide insights that can be carried over for studying the dynamics of different empirical domains, this is exactly what applied systems theory does today. The only thing that struck me as confusing is how Bertalanffy uses the concept of isomorphism for discussing what seems to be structure of the empirical data rather than the mathematical models that are used for understanding them. The fact that many phenomena can be characterised by exponential growth or logistic growth means only that the mathematical models are isomorph in the trivial sense of being identical. Nevertheless, general systems theory or systems theory is no less important now than it was in 1968, and this book is an excellent introduction to parts of the history and philosophy behind it.

This was impressive and influential at the time. It is still impressive today. Bertalanffy's contribution was considerable. Written for a general audience, this book set the standard for science writing that is still inspirational today.

Like most books on systems, he devotes a mere two or three sentences on what is a system, or not a system.