Systems science, also called systems theory, is the interdisciplinary study of complex systems in nature, society and engineering, focusing on the relationships and feedback loops among a system's parts rather than studying each part in isolation. Its modern form grew out of Ludwig von Bertalanffy's general systems theory, formulated in the mid twentieth century, and Norbert Wiener's closely related field of cybernetics, which examined communication and control in machines and living organisms. The discipline supplies concepts such as feedback, emergence and self-organization that are now applied across biology, economics, ecology and engineering.
Facts
Central QuestionHow a system's holistic behavior emerges from its interaction with its surrounding environment, and why that behavior can be stable in some boundary conditions and destructively unstable in others. 1 ScopeSystems science is a transdisciplinary field studying simple and complex systems in nature and society, with foundations applied across psychology, biology, medicine, business, technology, computer science and engineering. 1 SignificanceSystems science treats the world as a system of systems, giving fields as different as engineering and Earth-scale biosphere study a shared transdisciplinary vocabulary. 1 Sources
1. Systems science (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section, definition sentence
Systems science, also referred to as systems research or simply systems, is a transdisciplinary field that is concerned with understanding simple and complex systems in nature and society
Lead section, scope sentence
Themes commonly stressed in system science are (a) holistic view, (b) interaction between a system and its embedding environment, and (c) complex (often subtle) trajectories of dynamic behavior
Lead section, closing sentence
To systems scientists, the world can be understood as a system of systems.
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