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Le ultime ricerche in ogni campo della scienza hanno evidenziato come, nei più diversi fenomeni (dall'andamento dei mercati allo sviluppo di epidemie, dai problemi ambientali al traffico urbano...) sia necessario un approccio che analizzi non solo i singoli elementi, ma l'intera realtà generata dall'interazione di tutti i componenti del sistema. Questo metodo di analisi ha le sue origini in un saggio pubblicato nel 1969: la "Teoria generale dei sistemi" del biologo austriaco Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Un'opera che è diventata un classico della letteratura scientifica e filosofica, e che ha influenzato in profondità la cultura odierna generando quell'atteggiamento interdisciplinare rivelatosi tanto proficuo. ( )

I had read several books that referenced Bertalanffy’s writings and so bought this book in 2006. It sat on my shelf unread until I got interested in the very last chapter titled “The Relativity of Categories”. This chapter was good enough that I read the next to last chapter and finally finished the book backwards, something I usually do when I’m not totally committed to a book but somehow keep reading it. Bertalanffy is considered one of the founders of General Systems Theory, which is one name given to a broad field of loosely related sub disciplines that include cybernetics, complex adaptive systems, and nonlinear systems in mathematics. Here is one of several passages where Bertalanffy defines General Systems Theory:

“Not only are general aspects and viewpoints alike in different sciences; frequently we find formally identical or isomorphic laws in different fields. In many cases, isomorphic laws hold for certain classes or subclasses of "systems," irrespective of the nature of the entities involved. There appear to exist general system laws which apply to any system of a certain type, irrespective of the particular properties of the system and of the elements involved. These considerations lead to the postulate of a new scientific discipline which we call general system theory. Its subject matter is formulation of principles that are valid for "systems" in general, whatever the nature of their component elements and the relations or "forces" between them. General system theory, therefore, is a general science of "wholeness" which up till now was considered a vague, hazy, and semi-metaphysical concept…” (pg. 37)

Before reading this book I knew very little about Bertalanffy. My impression of him now is of an important and original thinker, but also someone trying to maintain some ownership and control over an field that was much larger than himself. While he has claim to some of the original ideas of systems theory, the ideas in different forms were also being developed elsewhere and evolved into major theories (cybernetics, information theory, etc.) independently of Bertalanffy. Several parts of the book go into justifications of how these areas are related to the theory that he originated, or deal with issues of priority where he tries to show he thought of some idea first. These egotistical asides are tiring and the book would have been improved if he could have remained a more detached chronicler of the exciting period of time in which he worked. While an original thinker I thought he was only an average writer and would recommend several books over this one for those interested in an introduction to this area (see below). Since the book is a collections of essays written throughout Bertalanffy’s career I found quite a bit of repetition, even though he says in the foreword that he has edited much of that out.

But the book did keep me engaged and I imagine was much more exciting and original when it was first published in 1968. Like another reviewer I found the later chapters (8-10) the most interesting. The exception to this was chapter 3 which is also quite good. Here are a couple of excerpts from chapter 3:

“It is an interesting consequence that, in Volterra's equations competition of two species for the same resources is, in a way more fatal than a predator-prey relation— i.e., partial annihilation of one species by the other. Competition eventually leads to the extermination of the species with the smaller growth capacity; a predator-prey relation only leads to periodic oscillation of the numbers of the species concerned around a mean value. These relations have been stated for biocoenotic systems, but it may well be that they have also sociological implications.” (pg. 66)

“In this contrast between wholeness and sum lies the tragical tension in any biological, psychological and sociological evolution. Progress is possible only by passing from a state of undifferentiated wholeness to differentiation of parts. This implies, however, that the parts become fixed with respect to a certain action. Therefore progressive segregation also means progressive mechanization. Progressive mechanization, however, implies loss of regulability. As long as a system is a unitary whole, a disturbance will be followed by the attainment of a new stationary state, due to the interactions within the system. The system is self-regulating. If, however, the system is split up into independent causal chains, regulability disappears. The partial processes will go on irrespective of each other. This is the behavior we find, for example, in embryonic development, determination going hand in hand with decrease of regulability.” (pg. 70)

Other good books dealing with these ideas are:

- “Thinking in Systems: A Primer” by Donella Meadows. Nice introduction to Systems Theory.
- “Dark Hero Of The Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener The Father of Cybernetics” by Conway: Interesting but lengthy bibliography of another systems thinker during the period of Bertalanffy’s book.
- “The Origins of Order” and “At Home in the Universe” by Kauffman: Deals with complexity, evolution and self-organization.
- “Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos” by Strogatz: Discusses differential equations and phase space analysis (fixed points, bifurcations, oscillations). A very mathematical introduction for those who have finished calculus.
- “Chaos” by Gleick’s: Popular introduction to the mathematical ideas in systems theory. ( )

Gathered here are Ludwig von Bertalanffy's writings on general systems theory, selected and edited to show the evolution of systems theory and to present it applications to problem solving.
An attempt to formulate common laws that apply to virtually every scientific field, this conceptual approach has had a profound impact on such widely diverse disciplines as biology, economics, psychology, and demography. (Google Books)