Systems, the Laws of Systems, and the Systems Method

Abstract

In 1937, at a philosophical symposium chaired by Charles Morris at the University of Chicago in the United States, Von Bertalanffy, an Austrian-American philosopher, announced the imminent establishment of a new field of knowledge, which he called a general theory of systems. In the wake of that proclamation, there emerged, in the world outside of China, a wave of enthusiasm that could be called systems mania. In 1978, Comrade Qian Xueshen and two others published in Wen hui bao an article titled "Systems Engineering: The Technology of Organizational Management." Since then, many comrades in our country have also carried out a considerable amount of research and study on the problems related to the theory of systems. Among these studies, the main focus of investigation, by comparison, has been the specific substance and contents of the concept of systems, the laws of systems, and the systems method. In the following essay, I shall attempt, under the guidance of the principle of dialectical materialism, to...