#ISSS2019 Corvallis

In recent years, rigorous attention has focused on developing a disciplinary activity-knowledge-guidance framework that might enable progress toward a General Systems Theory, i.e., a general theory of systems (GST*). I follow this work in utilizing a unique descriptor (e.g., cybersystemics, systemology) to encompass the field’s spectrum: from cybernetics and systems engineering to soft/critical systems and complexity, resilience, and network science. Through a closer examination of the disciplinary field itself, I seek to contribute to this theoretical progress.

Exploring the field requires "describing the subject matter in its natural context.” That is, if the disciplinary field is to be characterized as the study of nature’s patterns, then the nature of such patterns, the nature of their study, and interrelationships between the two are all critical areas of focus.

I begin by proposing a set of criteria for describing the field of systemology. These include: this description must serve as a standard for evaluating claims of systemic theory and practice, regardless of temporal or cultural context; and it must account for the emergence of schools with widely diverging worldviews: from realism to holism and radical constructivism.

I hope to elicit insights and/or questions about: what we talk about when we talk about systemic patterns, and how we come to draw distinctions among such patterns, across domains of evolutionary existence. This talk revisits my ISSS 2016 (Boulder) offering, “Dynamics as demarcation” (unpublished).