2016-01-20

January 20 is the thirty-second meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration is on Eventbrite.

Systems Thinking and Sweeping-in Processes

Systems thinking is based on a premise of open systems.  This means that systems interact not only with the parts defined inside a boundary specified, but also with things in the environment outside the boundary.  One process is described by C. West Churchman in his reading of Edgar A. Singer:

... a Singerian inquiring system must encompass the whole breadth of inquiry in its attempt to authorize and control its procedures.

Singer describes one such process, which he labels a "sweeping-in" operation.  [....]  Singer's method follows a traditional one of starting with logic and noting the dimensions added by each science in turn.  Thus, arithmetic adds the number and numerical laws; geometry adds point, line, plane, etc., and the laws of space; kinematics adds time and pure kinematical laws; mechanics adds mass and mechanical laws; physics adds groups and fields and statistical laws ("randomness"); biology adds function, organism and purpose, and teleological laws; psychology adds mind and psychic laws; sociology adds groups of minds and group laws; ethics adds ultimate purpose and moral laws.

The sweeping-in process consists of bringing in concepts and variables of this catalogue into the model to overcome inconsistencies of readings.

What new science (or ideas) should we bring into our discussions at Systems Thinking Ontario in 2016?

Venue: 

Suggested pre-reading: 

The first Systems Thinking Ontario session was on "The Meta-design of Dialogues as Inquiring Systems".  We'll revisit that.

In February, there's a "Systems Thinking 2" course at Aalto University with eight research reference clusters that may be interesting.

Participants should not feel limited to this suggested pre-reading, but should recognize that other attendees may have not read, or are reading differently, that content.

Agenda

Post-meeting artifacts

Bloggers are encouraged to write about their learning and experiences at the meeting. Links will be added to this page.