General theory of systems Ludwig von Bertalanffy and other sciences

An Austrian biologist, living in Canada and the USA, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, first put forward a number of ideas in 1937, which he later combined into one concept. He called it the "General Theory of Systems." What is it? This is the scientific concept of studying various objects considered as a system.

The main idea of the proposed theory was that the laws governing system objects are one and the same for different systems. In fairness, it must be said that the main ideas of L. Bertalanffy were laid by different scientists, including Alexander Alexandrovich Bogdanov, Russian philosopher, writer, politician, physician, in his fundamental work "Tectology", written by him in 1912. A.A. Bogdanov actively participated in the revolution, however, in many respects he disagreed with VI. Lenin. The October Revolution did not accept, but nevertheless continued cooperation with the Bolsheviks, having organized the first in the then-Russian Institute of Blood Transfusion and putting on itself a medical experiment. He died in 1928. Few people know today, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian physiologist V.M. Bekhterev, regardless of AA. Bogdanova, described more than 20 universal laws in the sphere of psychological and social processes.

The general theory of systems studies different types, the structure of systems, the processes of their functioning and development, the organization of components of structural-hierarchical levels, and much more. L. Bertalanffy also investigated so-called open systems exchanging free energy, matter and information with the medium.

The general theory of systems is currently exploring such system-wide regularities and principles as, for example, the hypothesis of semiotic continuity, the principle of feedback, organizational continuity, compatibility, complementary relationships, the law of necessary diversity, hierarchical compensation, the principle of monocentrism, the law of minimum, the law of smallest relative resistances , The principle of external complement, the theorem on recursive structures, the law of divergence, and others.

The modern state of the science of systems is owed to many by L. Bertalanffy. The general theory of systems is similar in many respects to the aims or methods of research with cybernetics - the science of general laws governing the process of control and transmission of information in different systems (mechanical, biological or social); Theory of information - a section of mathematics that defines the concept of information, its laws and properties; The theory of games analyzing with the help of mathematics the competition of two or more opposing forces in order to obtain the greatest win and the least loss; The theory of decision-making, which analyzes rational choices among various alternatives; Factor analysis, which uses the procedure for isolating factors in phenomena with many variables.

Today, the general theory of systems Receives a powerful impulse for its development in synergetics. I. Prigogine and G. Haken study nonequilibrium systems, dissipative structures and entropy in open systems. In addition, from the theory of L. Bertalanffy, such applied scientific disciplines as system engineering - the science of system planning, design, evaluation and design of human-machine systems, were distinguished; Engineering psychology; Kurt Lewin's theory of field behavior ; Research operations - the science of managing the components of economic systems (people, cars, materials, finance and others); SMD-methodology, which was developed by G.P. Shchedrovitsky, his co-workers and students; The theory of integral individuality of V. Merlin, the basis of which was, in many respects, the general theory of Bertalanffy systems discussed above.