Presidential address: System perception -- It's in the air [G.A. Swanson,
ISSS 1998 Plenary Session, July 24/98]
These notes are a rough transcription,
prepared as each individual presenter and/or commentator spoke at the ISSS
1998 conference. Gaps and errors have likely occurred. For more accurate
citations, please consult the original presenters. These notes have been
contributed to the ISSS by David Ing, of the IBM Advanced Business Institute
(sabi@systemicbusiness.org).
[Plenary session, July 24/98, 9:35 a.m.]
G. A. Swanson
In this electronic age, could have read this on the home page.
Want to emphasize one point.
-
James Miller interviewing Margaret Mead.
-
Cannon, Rosenbluth ...
-
Miller thought Americans didn't give credit to Ashby on feedback research.
-
Margaret Mead: Wouldn't worry about it, it was in the air.
Honored Anatol Rappaport that the systems movement is in a renaissance.
Miller on exuberance on science.
-
Mead: When principles of ISSS are not understood, the specialties can't
be integrated as well.
-
There's nothing new under the sun, and there's nothing old.
Need to understand systems at a greater complexity.
-
In the last 40 years, ISSS has been a fluid subculture, penetrating every
discipline.
ISSS have never been a strong organization, but individuals have passed
through, and carried to their specialties.
-
Today, the need for interdisciplinary research is again being seen.
-
However, interdisciplinary science is viewed from discipline-to-discipline,
rather than a general theory.
Pursuit of epistemological integration must be from a few people who go
beyond their bread-and-butter jobs.
The whole is still little recognized.
-
Must participate in grand theories, even those that do not cover the whole.
Next:
-
Address by Bela Banathy, incoming president
-
Two views
-
By a person from an indigenous world, who continues to live in the tradition
(without money)
-
By a person from a developing world.
Navigate ...
... to the 1998 ISSS Conference (Rough) Transcription
Main Page
... to the ISSS home page at www.isss.org.