System (from Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many systēma, in turn from Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of σύστημα systēma, "whole compounded of several parts or members, system", literary "composition"^[1]) is a set of interacting or interdependent entities An entity is something that has a distinct, separate existence, though it need not be a material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually regarded as entities. In general, there is also no presumption that an entity is animate. Entities are used in system developmental models that display communications and internal forming an integrated whole.

The concept of an 'integrated whole' can also be stated in terms of a system embodying a set of relationships which are differentiated from relationships of the set to other elements, and from relationships between an element of the set and elements not a part of the relational regime.

The scientific research field which is engaged in the study of the general properties of systems include systems theory Systems theory is a transdisciplinary approach, which abstracts and considers a system as a set of independent and interacting parts. The main goal is to study general principles of system functioning to be applied for the all types of systems in all fields of research. As a technical and general academic area of study it predominantly refers to, cybernetics Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory. Both in its origins and in its evolution in the second-half of the 20th century, cybernetics is equally applicable to physical and social systems, dynamical systems The dynamical system concept is a mathematical formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a pipe, and the number of fish each spring in a lake and complex systems Complex systems is the subject of a diverse variety of sciences and professional practice methods. It is often overshadowed by the representation of natural physical organization with systems of equations, the main subject below. In the study of complex systems that are less usefully represented with equations various other kinds of narratives and. They investigate the abstract properties of the matter and organization, searching concepts and principles which are independent of the specific domain, substance, type, or temporal scales of existence.

Most systems share common characteristics, including:

• Systems have structure Structure is a fundamental if sometimes intangible notion referring to the recognition, observation, nature, and stability of patterns and relationships of entities. From a child's verbal description of a snowflake, to the detailed scientific analysis of the properties of magnetic fields, the concept of structure is now often an essential, defined by parts and their composition;
• Systems have behavior Behavior, or behaviour , refers to the actions of an organism or system, usually in relation to its environment, which includes the other organisms or systems around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the organism or system to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or, which involves inputs, processing and outputs of material, energy or information;
• Systems have interconnectivity Interconnectivity is a concept that is used in numerous fields such as cybernetics, biology, ecology, network theory, and non-linear dynamics. The concept can be summarized as that all parts of a system interact with and rely on one another simply by the fact that they occupy the same system, and that a system is difficult or sometimes impossible: the various parts of a system have functional as well as structural relationships between each other.
• Systems have by themselves functions or groups of functions

The term system may also refer to a set of rules that governs behavior or structure.

History

The word system in its meaning here, has a long history which can be traced back to Plato (Philebus), Aristotle (Politics) and Euclid (Elements). It had meant "total", "crowd" or "union" in even more ancient times, as it derives from the verb sunìstemi, uniting, putting together.

In the 19th century the first to develop the concept of a "system" in the natural sciences was the French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot who studied thermodynamics In science, thermodynamics is the study of energy conversion between heat and mechanical work, and subsequently the macroscopic variables such as temperature, volume and pressure. The first to give a concise definition of the subject was Scottish physicist William Thomson who in 1854 stated that:. In 1824 he studied what he called the working substance (system), i.e. typically a body of water vapor, in steam engines, in regards to the system's ability to do work when heat is applied to it. The working substance could be put in contact with either a boiler, a cold reservoir (a stream of cold water), or a piston (to which the working body could do work by pushing on it). In 1850, the German physicist Rudolf Clausius Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius , was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founders of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle, he put the theory of heat on a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper, On the mechanical theory of heat, generalized this picture to include the concept of the surroundings In science and engineering, a system is the part of the universe that is being studied, while the environment is the remainder of the universe that lies outside the boundaries of the system. It is also known as the surroundings, and in thermodynamics, as the reservoir. Depending on the type of system, it may interact with the environment by and began to use the term "working body" when referring to the system.

One of the pioneers of the general systems theory In systems science, systems theory is an interdisciplinary theory about the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science, and is a framework by which one can investigate and/or describe any group of objects that work together to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro- was the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian-born biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory. Von Bertalanffy grew up in Austria and subsequently worked in Vienna, London, Canada and the USA. In 1945 he introduced models, principles, and laws that apply to generalized systems or their subclasses, irrespective of their particular kind, the nature of their component elements, and the relation or 'forces' between them.^[2]

Significant development to the concept of a system was done by Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener was an American mathematician and Ross Ashby W. Ross Ashby was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of complex systems. His first name was not used: he was known as Ross Ashby who pioneered the use of mathematics to study systems ^[3][4].

In the 1980s the term complex adaptive system Complex adaptive systems are special cases of complex systems. They are complex in that they are diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements and adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and learn from experience. The term complex adaptive systems (CAS) was coined at the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute (SFI), by John H was coined at the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute is a non-profit research institute located in Santa Fe (New Mexico, United States) and dedicated to the study of complex systems by John H. Holland John Henry Holland is an American scientist and Professor of Psychology and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a pioneer in complex system and nonlinear science. He is known as the father of genetic algorithms, Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann is an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles and others.

System concepts

Environment and boundaries

Systems theory Systems theory is a transdisciplinary approach, which abstracts and considers a system as a set of independent and interacting parts. The main goal is to study general principles of system functioning to be applied for the all types of systems in all fields of research. As a technical and general academic area of study it predominantly refers to views the world as a complex system of interconnected parts. We scope a system by defining its boundary In topology and mathematics in general, the boundary of a subset S of a topological space X is the set of points which can be approached both from S and from the outside of S. More precisely, it is the set of points in the closure of S, not belonging to the interior of S. An element of the boundary of S is called a boundary point of S. S is; this means choosing which entities are inside the system and which are outside - part of the environment In science and engineering, a system is the part of the universe that is being studied, while the environment is the remainder of the universe that lies outside the boundaries of the system. It is also known as the surroundings, and in thermodynamics, as the reservoir. Depending on the type of system, it may interact with the environment by. We then make simplified representations (models Scientific modelling is the process of generating abstract, conceptual, graphical and/or mathematical models. Science offers a growing collection of methods, techniques and theory about all kinds of specialized scientific modelling. Also a way to read elements easily which have been broken down to the simplest form) of the system in order to understand it and to predict or impact its future behavior. These models may define the structure Structure is a fundamental if sometimes intangible notion referring to the recognition, observation, nature, and stability of patterns and relationships of entities. From a child's verbal description of a snowflake, to the detailed scientific analysis of the properties of magnetic fields, the concept of structure is now often an essential and/or the behavior Behavior, or behaviour , refers to the actions of an organism or system, usually in relation to its environment, which includes the other organisms or systems around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the organism or system to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or of the system.

Natural and man-made systems

There are natural and man-made (designed) systems. Natural systems may not have an apparent objective but their outputs can be interpreted as purposes. Man-made systems are made with purposes that are achieved by the delivery of outputs. Their parts must be related; they must be “designed to work as a coherent entity” - else they would be two or more distinct systems

Theoretical Framework

An open system An open system is a system which continuously interacts with its environment. The interaction can take the form of information, energy, or material transfers into or out of the system boundary, depending on the discipline which defines the concept . An open system should be contrasted with the concept of an isolated system which exchanges neither exchanges matter and energy with its surroundings. Most systems are open systems; like a car, coffeemaker, or computer. A closed system In computing a closed system refers to software which the specifications and detail of implementation are kept secret, as opposed to open source systems exchanges energy, but not matter, with its environment; like Earth or the project Biosphere2 or 3. An isolated system In the natural sciences an isolated system, as contrasted with an open system, is a physical system that does not interact with its surroundings. It obeys a number of conservation laws: its total energy and mass stay constant. They cannot enter or exit, but can only move around inside. An example is in the study of spacetime, where it is assumed exchanges neither matter nor energy with its environment; a theoretical example of which would be the universe.

Process and transformation process

A system can also be viewed as a bounded transformation process, that is, a process or collection of processes that transforms inputs into outputs. Inputs are consumed; outputs are produced. The concept of input and output here is very broad. E.g., an output of a passenger ship is the movement of people from departure to destination.

Subsystem

A subsystem is a set of elements, which is a system itself, and a part of a larger system.

Types of systems

Evidently, there are many types of systems that can be analyzed both quantitatively A quantitative attribute is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measured. Measurements of any particular quantitative property are expressed as a specific quantity, referred to as a unit, multiplied by a number. Examples of physical quantities are distance, mass, and time. Many attributes in the social sciences, and qualitatively. For example, with an analysis of urban systems dynamics, [A.W. Steiss] ^[5] defines five intersecting systems, including the physical subsystem and behavioral system. For sociological models influenced by systems theory, where Kenneth D. Bailey Major Kenneth D. Bailey was a United States Marine Corps officer who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroic conduct during action during the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. He also earned the Silver Star Medal during the initial landing on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands and the Purple Heart ^[6] defines systems in terms of conceptual A concept is a cognitive unit of meaning—an abstract idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics. A concept is typically associated with a corresponding representation in a language or symbology[citation needed] such as a single meaning of a term, concrete Concrete is a construction material composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate (generally a coarse aggregate made of gravels or crushed rocks such as limestone, or granite, plus a fine aggregate such as sand), water, and chemical admixtures and abstract systems; either isolated In the natural sciences an isolated system, as contrasted with an open system, is a physical system that does not interact with its surroundings. It obeys a number of conservation laws: its total energy and mass stay constant. They cannot enter or exit, but can only move around inside. An example is in the study of spacetime, where it is assumed, closed In computing a closed system refers to software which the specifications and detail of implementation are kept secret, as opposed to open source systems, or open An open system is a system which continuously interacts with its environment. The interaction can take the form of information, energy, or material transfers into or out of the system boundary, depending on the discipline which defines the concept . An open system should be contrasted with the concept of an isolated system which exchanges neither, Walter F. Buckley Walter Frederick Buckley was an American Professor of sociology. He was among the first to apply concepts from general systems theory (GST), based on the work of Bertalanffy, to sociology. The sociologist was not specifically aligned to either the cybernetics or the general systems movements ^[7] defines social systems in sociology in terms of mechanical, organic Organic describes forms, methods and patterns found in living systems such as the organisation of cells, to populations, communities, and ecosystems, and process The term process model is used in various contexts. For example, in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the business process model. Process models are core concepts in the discipline of Process Engineering models. Bela H. Banathy Béla Heinrich Bánáthy was a Hungarian linguist, systems scientist and a professor at San José State University and UC Berkeley. Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program whose leadership model was adopted across the United States. He is also founder of the International Systems Institute with its innovative & ^[8] cautions that with any inquiry into a system that understanding the type of system is crucial and defines Natural and Designed systems.

In offering these more global definitions, the author maintains that it is important not to confuse one for the other. The theorist explains that natural systems include sub-atomic systems, living systems Living systems theory is a general theory about the existence of all living systems, their structure, interaction, behavior and development. This work is created by James Grier Miller, which was intended to formalize the concept of life. According to Miller's original conception as spelled out in his magnum opus Living Systems, a "living, the solar system The Solar System[a] consists of the Sun and those celestial objects bound to it by gravity, all of which were formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Of the many objects that orbit the Sun, most of the mass is contained within eight relatively solitary planets[e] whose orbits are almost circular and, the galactic Galactic is a funk and jazz jam band from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States system and the Universe. Designed systems are our creations, our physical structures, hybrid systems which include natural and designed systems, and our conceptual knowledge. The human element of organization and activities are emphasized with their relevant abstract systems and representations. A key consideration in making distinctions among various types of systems is to determine how much freedom the system has to select purpose, goals, methods, tools, etc. and how widely is the freedom to select itself distributed (or concentrated) in the system.

George J. Klir George Jiri Klir is a Czech-American computer scientist and professor of systems sciences at the Center for Intelligent Systems at the State University of New York at Binghamton, New York ^[9] maintains that no "classification is complete and perfect for all purposes," and defines systems in terms of abstract, real The Real refers to that which is authentic, the unchangeable truth in reference both to being/the Self and the external dimension of experience, also referred to as the infinite and absolute - as opposed to a reality based on sense perception and the material order, and conceptual A conceptual system is a system that is composed of non-physical objects, i.e. ideas or concepts. In this context a system is taken to mean "an interrelated, interworking set of objects" physical systems In physics the word system has a technical meaning, namely, it is the portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment, which in analysis is ignored except for its effects on the system. The cut between system and environment is a free choice, generally made to simplify the analysis as, bounded and unbounded systems In the theory of dynamical systems, an unbounded system is a system that has no bound; i.e. one that can expand forever, with no limit, discrete to continuous, pulse to hybrid systems A hybrid system is a dynamic system that exhibits both continuous and discrete dynamic behavior – a system that can both flow and jump (described by a difference equation). Often, the term "hybrid dynamic system" is used, to distinguish over hybrid systems such as those that combine neural nets and fuzzy logic, or electrical and, et cetera. The interaction between systems and their environments are categorized in terms of relatively closed, and open systems. It seems most unlikely that an absolutely closed system can exist or, if it did, that it could be known by us. Important distinctions have also been made between hard and soft systems.^[10] Hard systems are associated with areas such as systems engineering, operations research and quantitative systems analysis. Soft systems are commonly associated with concepts developed by Peter Checkland and Brian Wilson through Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) involving methods such as action research and emphasizing participatory designs. Where hard systems might be identified as more "scientific," the distinction between them is actually often hard to define.

Cultural system

A cultural system may be defined as the interaction of different elements of culture. While a cultural system is quite different from a social system, sometimes both systems together are referred to as the sociocultural system. A major concern in the social sciences is the problem of order. One way that social order has been theorized is according to the degree of integration of cultural and social factors.

Economic system

An economic system is a mechanism (social institution) which deals with the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in a particular society. The economic system is composed of people, institutions and their relationships to resources, such as the convention of property. It addresses the problems of economics, like the allocation and scarcity of resources.

Application of the system concept

Systems modeling is generally a basic principle in engineering and in social sciences. The system is the representation of the entities under concern. Hence inclusion to or exclusion from system context is dependent of the intention of the modeler.

No model of a system will include all features of the real system of concern, and no model of a system must include all entities belonging to a real system of concern.

Systems in information and computer science

In computer science and information science, system could also be a method or an algorithm. Again, an example will illustrate: There are systems of counting, as with Roman numerals, and various systems for filing papers, or catalogues, and various library systems, of which the Dewey Decimal System is an example. This still fits with the definition of components which are connected together (in this case in order to facilitate the flow of information).

System can also be used referring to a framework, be it software or hardware, designed to allow software programs to run, see platform.

Systems in engineering and physics

In engineering and physics, a physical system is the portion of the universe that is being studied (of which a thermodynamic system is one major example). Engineering also has the concept of a system that refers to all of the parts and interactions between parts of a complex project. Systems engineering refers to the branch of engineering that studies how this type of system should be planned, designed, implemented, built, and maintained.

Systems in social and cognitive sciences and management research

Social and cognitive sciences recognize systems in human person models and in human societies. They include human brain functions and human mental processes as well as normative ethics systems and social/cultural behavioral patterns.

In management science, operations research and organizational development (OD), human organizations are viewed as systems (conceptual systems) of interacting components such as subsystems or system aggregates, which are carriers of numerous complex processes and organizational structures. Organizational development theorist Peter Senge developed the notion of organizations as systems in his book The Fifth Discipline.

Systems thinking is a style of thinking/reasoning and problem solving. It starts from the recognition of system properties in a given problem. It can be a leadership competency. Some people can think globally while acting locally. Such people consider the potential consequences of their decisions on other parts of larger systems. This is also a basis of systemic coaching in psychology.

Organizational theorists such as Margaret Wheatley have also described the workings of organizational systems in new metaphoric contexts, such as quantum physics, chaos theory, and the self-organization of systems.

In modern systemic socio-cognitive engineering the concept system is generalized to so-called intelligence-based system. The Top-down Object-based Goal-oriented Approach (TOGA meta-theory) integrates formally the concepts of system, process, function and goal in frame of one congruent ontological meta-system. Among others, this paradigm enables the top-down computational analysis of heterogeneous human-organization-technology aggregates and recognition of their pathological properties such as organization vulnerability, crisis and changes ^[11].

Systems applied to strategic thinking

In 1988, military strategist, John A. Warden III introduced his Five Ring System model in his book, The Air Campaign contending that any complex system could be broken down into five concentric rings. Each ring—Leadership, Processes, Infrastructure, Population and Action Units—could be used to isolate key elements of any system that needed change. The model was used effectively by Air Force planners in the First Gulf War.^[12],^[13],^[14]. In the late 1990s, Warden applied this five ring model to business strategy^[15].

See also

References

1. ^ σύστημα, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
2. ^ 1945, Zu einer allgemeinen Systemlehre, Blätter für deutsche Philosophie, 3/4. (Extract in: Biologia Generalis, 19 (1949), 139-164.
3. ^ 1948, Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Paris, France: Librairie Hermann & Cie, and Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
4. ^ 1956. An Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman & Hall.
5. ^ Steiss 1967, p.8-18.
6. ^ Bailey, 1994.
7. ^ Buckley, 1967.
8. ^ Banathy, 1997.
9. ^ Klir 1969, pp. 69-72
10. ^ Checkland 1997; Flood 1999.
11. ^ Adam Maria Gadomski, Human organisation socio-cognitive vulnerability: the TOGA meta-theory approach to the modelling methodology *, International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, Vol. 5, Nr.1-2, 2009
12. ^ Warden, John A. III (1988). The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat. Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press. ISBN 9781583481004.
13. ^ Warden, John A. III (September 1995). "Chapter 4: Air theory for the 21st century" (in Air and Space Power Journal). Battlefield of the Future: 21st Century Warfare Issues. United States Air Force. http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/battle/chp4.html. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
14. ^ Warden, John A. III (1995). "Enemy as a System". Airpower Journal Spring (9): 40–55. http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj95/spr95_files/warden.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-25.
15. ^ Russell, Leland A.; Warden, John A. (2001). Winning in FastTime: Harness the Competitive Advantage of Prometheus in Business and in Life. Newport Beach, CA: GEO Group Press. ISBN 0971269718.

Further reading

• Alexander Backlund (2000). "The definition of system". In: Kybernetes Vol. 29 nr. 4, pp. 444–451.
• Kenneth D. Bailey (1994). Sociology and the New Systems Theory: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis. New York: State of New York Press.
• Bela H. Banathy (1997). "A Taste of Systemics", ISSS The Primer Project.
• Walter F. Buckley (1967). Sociology and Modern Systems Theory, New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs.
• Peter Checkland (1997). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Robert L. Flood (1999). Rethinking the Fifth Discipline: Learning within the unknowable. London: Routledge.
• George J. Klir (1969). Approach to General Systems Theory, 1969.
• Brian Wilson (1980). Systems: Concepts, methodologies and Applications, John Wiley
• Brian Wilson (2001). Soft Systems Methodology—Conceptual model building and its contribution, J.H.Wiley.
• Beynon-Davies P. (2009). Business Information + Systems. Palgrave, Basingstoke. ISBN 978-0-230-20368-6

External links

• Definitions of Systems and Models by Michael Pidwirny, 1999-2007.
• Definitionen von "System" (1572-2002) by Roland Müller, 2001-2007 (most in German).

Categories: Cybernetics | Systems | Systems theory | Systems science | Greek loanwords

See Also:

What Links Here:

Recently Viewed Pages:

• Home
• Qiblih
• Blogs
• Animism: Encyclopedia
• Orison: Dictionary
• Recite: Dictionary
• Prayer: Images
• Prayer: Answers
• Society: Religion and Spirituality: Christianity: Prayer: Prayer Request Pages: Directory
• Prayer Book: Dictionary

Most Popular Pages:

• Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi
• Accusative: Images
• Animism: Encyclopedia
• Incantation: Encyclopedia
• Requiem: Answers
• Theravada: Images
• Miscarriage & Infant Loss Memorial Book
• Eid Prayer
• Qiblih
• Mani Stone: Images

Related 'Systems' Searches: