"Today our main problem is that of organized complexity. Concepts like those of organization, wholeness, directiveness, teleology, control, self-regulation, differentiation and the like are alien to conventional physics. However, they pop up everywhere in the biological, behavioural and social sciences, and are, in fact, indispensable for dealing with living organisms or social groups. Thus, a basic problem posed to modern science is a general theory of organization."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from AustriaPeople from ViennaSystems scientistsBiologists from CanadaBiologists from Austria
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Von Bertalanffy (1956) "General System Theory". In: General Systems, Yearbook of the Society for General Systems Research, vol. 1, 1956.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ludwig_von_Bertalanffy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Ludwig von Bertalanffy (September 19, 1901 – June 12, 1972) was an Austrian-born biologist, who grew up in Austria and subsequently worked in Vienna, London, Canada, and the USA. He is known as one of the founders of general systems theory; an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, applicable to biology, cybernetics and other fields. Bertalanffy proposed that the classical laws of thermodynamics applied to closed systems, but not necessarily to "op
70 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ludwig von Bertalanffy →
Related Quotes
"Our conception is that of a theory about the system in an inertial state... if the organism is a system in an inertia…"
"What in the whole denotes a causal equilibrium process, appears for the part as a teleological event."
"Teleologie ist … ein Ausfluss der Systemgesetzlichkeit und damit ein legitimer Gegenstand naturwissenschaftlicher For…"
"It is an empirical rule that living, evolutionary, psychological, social, etc., systems tend toward increasing differ…"
"The rule is derived inductively from experience, therefore does not have any inner necessity, is always valid only fo…"
"Wholeness [Ganzheit], Gestalt, is the primary attribute of life."
"The characteristic of the organism is first that it is more than the sum of its parts and second that the single proc…"
"The science of life has nowadays to a certain extent become a crossroad, in which the contemporary intellectual devel…"
"The characteristic of life does not lie in a distinctiveness of single life processes. [Lebensvorgänge], but rather i…"
"# Cybernetics, based upon the principle of feedback or circular causal trains providing mechanisms for goal-seeking a…"