Crisis in modern epistemology (Possible ways out) Chapter 8

The history of the system approach

Most systems theories deal with systems of any order of complexity. If before the beginning of the twentieth century, production developed more or less independently of science, then already at the turn of the century, production becomes science-intensive. By this time, it became necessary to study complex systems such as social life, man-machine systems and the like. Such traditional disciplines as sociology, biology, economics, psychology, engineering design did not provide an adequate description of these processes. The systems approach was a kind of generalization of knowledge about systems in each of the disciplines.

In the history of the emergence of system analysis, three stages should be distinguished:

1. The "pre-systemic" period, when scientists, philosophers, thinkers used some methodological techniques, which later began to be used in the theory of systems analysis. This period refers to the emergence of the term "system", which appeared in Ancient Hellas 2000 - 2500 years ago and originally meant: combination, organism, device, organization, system, union. It also expressed certain acts of activity and their results (something put together; something put in order). Initially, the word "system" was associated with the forms of socio-historical being. Only later did the principle of order, the idea of ordering, transfer to the Universe.

2. The second period - the emergence of the method, which later came to be called "systemic". The end of the second period can be considered 1954 when L. f. Bertalanffy organized the Society for General Systems Theory. During this period, four prominent thinkers from different countries develop the fundamental basis for subsequent systems analysis.

Ferdinand de Saussure. Its main idea is that linguistics will then become a science when it will study not physical objects, but will study some other formations, which it calls structures. F. de Saussure called this set of meaningful features of sound a "phoneme". Linguistics used to be concerned with sounds, and new linguistics must study roles, positions; then one figure differs from another not in the bodily sense, but in the functional one.

M. Petrovich, who, being a mathematician, studied various kinds of mathematical models and compared them with each other. In the theory of "general phenomenology" M. Petrovich singles out the main types of functions and types of processes of dissimilar phenomena, believing that, by clarifying the functions of elements, it is possible to explain the mechanism (structure) of the phenomenon, and from the generality of mechanisms, to conclude about the generality of the course of processes (as well as vice versa), and on the similarity of functions - on the similarity of structures. M. Petrovich singled out 5 or 6 roles, which he finds in completely different areas. Accordingly, the analogy of processes is considered. As a result of his research, he comes to the conclusion that "there is a structural analogy between all natural phenomena." Structures are interesting regardless of the things on which they are implemented.

A. Bogdanov developed another version of the methodology of the systems approach, which he called "tectology". "Tektos" - from the Greek. builder, organizer; tectology is the science of construction, organization. The problem arises of constructing a general theory of construction or organization. To do this, you need to create the science of how to organize everything. In "Tectology" A. Bogdanov develops a conceptual system, general concepts of any organization. An organization is stable when it has a skeleton. But the skeleton is not biological, but tectological, in the sense of structure. A. Bogdanov thinks of tectology as a further generalization of mathematics. A large number of such examples are contained in the two-volume work Tectology. There you can find a general tectological law: "the stability of the whole depends on the smallest relative resistances of all its parts at any moment." "Tectology" is a kind of "organizational" version of the construction of a general theory of systems.

The term "general systems theory" was proposed by the Austrian biologist (!) Ludwig von Bertalanffy, which contributed a lot to the fact that this theory is most often associated with his name. In order to solve a number of problems in biology, L. von Bertalanffy built a theory of biological organisms on the basis of a generalization of the provisions of physical chemistry, kinetics and thermodynamics. This theory is called the theory of open systems. Then a further generalization was required, called general systems theory. The idea of such a theory was expressed in 1937 at the Philosophical Seminar of Charles Morris in Chicago. But even then there were no suitable conditions for the adoption and development of OTS - theoretical knowledge was not popular with biologists. The new paradigm was able to make its way only after the Second World War. Then the "Society for Research in General Systems Theory" was organized, which began to publish yearbooks. L. von Bertalanffy identified analogies between different phenomena - like M. Petrovich and A. Bogdanov. He himself calls his method empirical-deductive. Just like M. Petrovich, but unlike A. Bogdanov, he widely uses the mathematical apparatus of differential equations, although only for illustrations, and not as a general method for solving problems. With the help of differential equations, L. von Bertalanffy succeeded in giving a formal expression of such important properties of systems, which he called system parameters, such as integrity, sum, mechanization, growth, competition, finality, equifinality in behaviour, etc. Differential equations make it possible to describe the behaviour of the system as if "from the inside". From the outside, a system can be viewed as a "black box", and its relationship with the environment and other systems can be depicted in the form of block diagrams and diagrams using the concepts of entry and exit. L. von Bertalanffy built only one of the possible variants of the OTS.

3. The third period is characterized by the emergence of a large number of systemological schools and directions. Several theories have been proposed: W. Ross Ashby, J. Clear. M. Mesarovich, Den Chzhulong and A. Uemov's Parametric OTS.

All of them are united by one common task: "The study of logical consequences from the fact that systems have certain properties should be the main content of any general theory of systems, which can never be limited to only a descriptive classification of systems."

In 1948 N. Wiener's "Cybernetics" was published, in 1950 - "Investigation of operations" by Morse and Kimbell and the article "Theory of open systems" by L. f. Bertalanffy. In 1951 L. f. Bertalanffy published General Systems Theory. The first book on systems analysis was published in 1956 by Kahn and Mann. In 1957, Guda and Makola's "System Engineering" was published. One of the first books on problem-solving was published in 1955 - "The Art of Problem Solving" by E. Khadneta. K. Boulding's article "General theory of systems - the skeleton of science", developing the ideas of L. f. Bertalanffy, was published in 1956. One of the first attempts to formalize the theory of problem-solving and OTS was undertaken in 1960 by M. Mesarovich. At this time, powerful institutions of cybernetics arose in Kyiv and Tbilisi. The 60s - 70s saw the growth of systems research in the former USSR. In a number of cities (Moscow, Kyiv, Odesa, Tbilisi, Novosibirsk), centres of systems research have emerged. At this time, the Odessa seminar on Parametric OTS appeared, the organizer and leader of which, since 1967, was A.I. Uyomov.