As pre-studies have shown a lot disciplines have adopted system theory for their needs, but some of the changed theories are already far away from the original intention. On the one side the development in the different disciplines is positive, on the other side this leads to contradicting positions followed by misunderstandings and building up new boarders that are weakening the prime intention of system theory. System theory always was meant to be an integrative tool for all sciences and to have a dialog between scientific disciplines.<\/p>\n
The focus of the research project lies on the reception of system theory after Bertalanffys dead. Based on the theory arising from biology the developments in different disciplines will be investigated.<\/p>\n
The key question is, if Bertalanffys and Weiss\u2019 system theory still plays a role in science today and especially if there are contributions that broaden or reduce the concept.<\/p>\n
As system theory generally influences the development of various disciplines and the concepts of how we deal with society and environment, the knowledge of how system theory is understood today is of paramount importance.<\/p>\n
System theory today is a research project supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) Grant P18149-G04 to Rupert Riedl (1925\u20132005), who unfortunately passed away shortly after the research project was initiated. Riedl was one of Bertalanffy\u2019s students in 1940s post-war Vienna and later on actively emphasized the importance of \u201cSystemtheorie\u201d (system theory) and \u201cL\u00e4ngsschnitttheorien\u201d (longitudinal-section theories)\u2015not only in biology, but also in other sciences and in humanities as well. His emphasis on the importance of establishing a theoretical biology was also influenced by Bertalanffy. Later on, Weiss also exerted an influence on Riedl.<\/p>\n
The project ended in July 2007.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=“2011″ tab_id=“1613195717049-d4bf3329-c725″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
Vienna 2011 | Ludwig von Bertalanffy 110 Aniversary<\/h1>\n
In 2011 there was the 110th anniversary of Ludwig von Bertalanffy\u2019s birthday. Thanks to sufficient funding, the BCSSS could organise two LvB 110 Events on 9 and 10 November 2011 and invite renown systems theorists from abroad.<\/p>\n
On the eve of a one-day symposium David Pouvreau held a public lecture on General systemology as founded and developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy \u2013 An hermeneutical system. David Pouvreau who just finished his dissertation work on Ludwig von Bertalanffy at the EHESS (\u00c9cole des hautes \u00e9tudes en sciences sociales) in Paris presented the core message of his findings: the General System Theory of Ludwig von Bertalanffy is neither a philosophical doctrine nor a scientific theory but , as a system that interpretes \u201creality\u201d in order to guide action according to specific values, is grounded in philosophy and, with regard to science, seminal.<\/p>\n
David Pouvreau during after-lecture discussion and Wolfgang Hofkirchner (photo: Alexander Laszlo) David Pouvreau is the first author of the BCSSS Book Series<\/a> \u201cExploring Unity Through Diversity\u201d. His \u201cultimate biography\u201d of Ludwig von Bertalanffy is also due to his doctoral research.<\/p>\n For this event a lecture hall was found that belonged to the then Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna and was used by Ludwig von Bertalanffy himself: Lecture Hall Number 42. The event was held in cooperation with the Department for Theoretical Biology of the University of Vienna, a follow-up institution of the Zoological Institute that Bertalanffy was affiliated to and helped to restore after World War II.<\/p>\n Entrance of Lecture Hall 42 (photo: Alexander Laszlo) The second event to which the public lecture formed the prelude was the first experts meeting the Bertalanffy Center organised. The symposium was titled \u201cSystems thinking: what\u2019s it for?\u201d and was devoted to the discussion of the past and future of the systems movement. For the programme and list of participants click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The morning session was reserved for individual presentations.<\/p>\n Rainer E. Zimmermann, recent member of the BCSSS Scientific Council, making his presentation (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz) Participants (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Plenum (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz) Plenum, Joseph Brenner (second from the right) speaking (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Elohim Jim\u00e9nez-L\u00f3pez, Vice-President of the BCSSS, giving his address (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n While listening to the presenters Stefan Blachfellner began to draw a picture of the development of systems theory approaches. Participants were later on invited to make additions.<\/p>\n Stefan Blachfellner drawing the time-line (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Add-ons made by participants (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Stefan Blachfellner acted as facilitator of the afternoon group work. In four parallel groups three topics were dealt with consecutively: where are we now? Where do we want to go? Which steps are the most promising ones to take?<\/p>\n Introduction in group working (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Presentation of a working group (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Another working group\u2019s presentation (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Part of a group result (photo: G\u00fcnther Ossimitz)<\/em><\/p>\n Individual presentations as well as working group discussions showed the significance of General System Theory sensu<\/em> Bertalanffy as well as others to date: the commitment of system thinkers to transdisciplinary research for the sake of a humane world society.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n Bertalanffy Anniversary Conference 2001<\/strong><\/p>\n The very first call to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Bertalanffy\u2019s Birthday were essentially concerned with the conceptual of General Systems Weltanschauung as an indispensable framework needed for helping the humans to search how to make sustainable the dynamics of their civilization. The first announcement was diffused in the following terms:<\/p>\n The prevailing civilization is proclaimed nowadays as if it were a conclusive proof of wonderful achievements attained by humans learning successfully to industrialize everything through superb advances of scientific knowledge and magnificent technological innovations carried out by means of their intelligent performances.<\/p>\n Besides, it is announced as the definitive evidence of the human supremacy, which in practice, encourages many decision makers to organize their affairs according to utilitarian aims, taking advantage of all kinds of things and phenomena (located or happening on the planet), as if everything (billions of humans comprised) were no more than resources available.<\/p>\n This kind of performance has created a new, but a rather paradoxical perspective for the future development of humankind. The intelligence that has been making possible every day more scientific and technological advances, until now, seems to be unable to deal with the many and very complex problems that are arising as side effects of the same civilizing process:<\/p>\n pollution by means of pesticides, chemicals, sewage and garbage that causes damages to vital properties of natural elements: water, air, soils; which together with massive deforestation and destruction of animals habitats are causing the extinction of many species, holes in the ozone layer, and climate\u2019s changes due to green house effects. Waste of valuable resources, which is the cause of depletion of non-renewable mineral reserves & energy reserves. Export of capitals from less developed nations to highly industrialized ones, export of inflation & recession and unfair trade that increase wastage & underemployment of human potentiality, unemployment,\u2026 that generate not only poverty, but also social situations \u2018infected\u2019 with xenophobia, racism, non declared apartheid de facto, religious & ethnical intolerance\u2026; weakening of human motivation, lack of ethics, poor social solidarity; increasing drug-addiction & neurosis; which altogether increase the misery of billions of people affected by new diseases and the aggravation of ancient ones. This dramatic panorama being tragically worsened by arms\u2019 traffic employed for destroying cultural accomplishments, social ambiances and natural environments in order to make monetary profits.<\/p>\n These are old problems that cannot longer be ignored. In fact many scientists and professionals are already convinced that collective endeavours organized through co-operation are strictly necessary for comprehending the terrestrial circumstances and tackling them knowing in advance the human possibilities. Such kind of efforts would create the necessary circumstances for finding out a way forward that should aim at making sustainable the development of a new kind of civilization, which must be supported by humanitarian commitments in order to maintain the terrestrial circumstances that are making possible the presence of life, to support the harmonious evolvement of biodiversity everywhere and to allow every human to develop his\/her humane potentiality.<\/p>\n Ludwig von Bertalanffy as a biologist was the first to undertake a mathematical rigorous approach to the understanding of biochemical synergies, which led him to develop the concept of SYSTEM. The idea of system, though it seems to be intrinsic to human thinking, started to be employed explicity and effectively after Bertalanffy, Boulding, Gerard and Rapoport constituted the Society for the Advancement of General Systems Theory in 1954. Since then, the concept of system has been spread quickly among people engaged in actions related to various scientific domains & technological fields, dealing with diverse human concerns.<\/p>\n At present thousands of professionals are using the systems approach, presumably for improving functionally factories, enterprises, public and private organizations and all kinds of entities that have been created in order to deal more efficiently with all kinds of human concerns. At the same time the number of increasingly difficult global problems continuously grows. Such a contradictory situation has arisen and won\u2019t disappear while the decision making continue being organized for maintaining the civilization trends though they have become frankly unsustainable<\/p>\n Bertalanffy around the 1960s claimed that this civilization was on the verge of collapse, as it had been already commented by Herbert G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, Lewis Mumford, Arnold Toynbee,\u2026 Until today, in the year 2002, the new set of values, based on a General Systems WELTANSCHAUUNG as it was suggested by Bertalanffy, has not been rejected by the scientific community, but neither has been adopted for being implemented.<\/p>\n How much risky has become the perspective for 6 billion of human beings at the turn of the 3rd millennium? Nobody knows how much time is left for avoiding the collapse of the prevailing civilization and even less is known when and how the human species might disappear after the happening of such a disruption.<\/p>\n Anyhow every systems practitioner might start immediately to examine how every human could contribute to find out what are the planetary commitments of the human species.<\/p>\n The very first proposal for this celebration was presented (*) as a \u201cTransdisciplinary Workshop about the need of learning to cope with the global crisis that faces humankind at present\u201d. It was derived from thoughts expressed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy: This proposal assumed that the celebration would be essentially concerned in searching how to answer:<\/p>\n Why, how and what for should we create a WELTANSCHUUNG (worldview)?<\/p>\n as criteria generated by Bertalanffy\u2019s Systems Thinking in order to determine what system science should be for.<\/p>\n Then, it was suggested that the whole event might become explicitly a renewed endeavor of the Systems Community toward the development of a General Systems WELTANSCHAUUNG (worldview), needed as an indispensable framework for continuously searching how to make sustainable the presence of humanity in time and in space. Such a suggestion arose necessarily after being recognized that during millennia humans have been involved in an unconscious adventure without realizing that their world have been always growing disorderly.<\/p>\n A second proposal considered that this celebration would comprise: Besides other difficulties emerged from time to time during some necessary inquiries and exchange of views causing some uncertainty about the whole celebration, which looked as if it were a risky meeting.<\/p>\n After all it can be argued that altogether this celebration was again another confrontation between the two main contradictory interpretations that have been determining the features of the Systems Movement:<\/p>\n * The BOTTOM ==> UP approach which evolved from the \u201csystems analysis\u201d, engendered by the relatively ancient analytical way of thinking conceived by Galileo Galilei through his \u201cMetodo Resolutivo\u201d. This stream has in fact determined the trajectory of the Western civilization along the last four centuries while being diversely developed, though it has been inconsistently implemented. This approach has been recently reinforced by the whole set of technical methods known as \u201coperational research\u201d whose pragmatic features have been causing numerous incoherent conditions.<\/p>\n * The TOP ==> DOWN approach derived from the organismic or gestalt assumption, which led Bertalanffy to confirm first of all the validity of a reconceived holistic way of thinking needed unavoidably for comprehending how living beings perform as open systems. An approach that in addition has become indispensable for conceiving properly and making functional any social system that were considered necessary for cooperatively organizing diverse human performances. It is an approach that aims at clearly seeing the forest for the trees, in order to identify first the whole before trying to recognize its parts and the way these parts are dynamically interrelated.<\/p>\n BAC 2001 never intended to recognize every aspect of the whole Bertalanffian thinking, mainly because it would be impossible to examine in four days what he thought from the 1920s until 1972. However, most participants started to recognize \u201cthough not necessarily to agree\u201c what might be the impact of Bertalanffian Systems Thinking in the seriously troubled situation of the human society, which Bertalanffy forecasted more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n Anyhow, BAC 2001 was an ideological confrontation supported by the following claim: elohimjl[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n Here you find D. Pouvreau\u2019s public lecture:<\/p>\n General systemology as founded and developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy \u2013 <\/a><\/strong>An hermeneutical system<\/a><\/strong>(pptx)<\/p>\n And here is the pool of presentations at the symposium:<\/p>\n E. Jim\u00e9nez-L\u00f3pez: Renewed Bertalanffian systems may overcome the perversity of the civilized (?) homosphere generated by the crisis of human values<\/a><\/strong> (docx file); and the introduction of Stafford Beer\u2019s Presidential Address to WOSC 1993<\/a><\/strong> (doc)<\/p>\n A. L\u00e1szl\u00f3: The Humanistic Bases of Systems Thinking<\/a><\/strong>(pdf); for Apple users only the Keynote file zipped<\/a><\/p>\n M. Ramage: Bertalanffy amid the seven schools: multiple traditions within systems thinking<\/a><\/strong>(pptx)<\/p>\n H. Knyazeva: The Contribution of the Russian Scientific Schools to the Development of Systems Thinking<\/a><\/strong>(pptx)<\/p>\n R. E. Zimmermann: Ground & Existence Revisited: On Morin\u2019s Approach to Systems<\/a><\/strong>(ppt)<\/p>\n J. Brenner: Of Logic and Systems: Ludwig von Bertalanffy and St\u00e9phane Lupasco<\/a><\/strong>(ppt) and the draft text version as doc file<\/a><\/p>\n B. Zehetmayer: Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Talcott Parsons: The emergence of (social) systems theory<\/a> M. Mulej: Promotion of systemic\/cybernetic behavior by ISO 26000 on social responsibility<\/a><\/strong>(ppt) and the text version as docx file<\/a><\/p>\n And here are related documents by the participants:<\/p>\n G. Chroust says this document is in line with Mulej\u2019s presentation: First responders in regional disasters \u2013 A social responsibility<\/a><\/strong>(pdf)<\/p>\n And here you find photos of the working groups\u2019s results (all shot by Stefan Blachfellner):<\/p>\n The cover of the 2nd print edition<\/em> of BCSSS Honorary Member Charles Fran\u00e7ois\u2019 Encyclopedia<\/em><\/p>\n Charles Fran\u00e7ois<\/strong>, author of the two volumes edition of the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics \u2013 the second edition of which was published by K. G. Saur in Munich in 2004 \u2013 handed over the continuation of the encyclopedia to the next generation. The BCSSS took that task over in close collaboration with the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR).<\/p>\n View the concept written in 2008 by Stefan Blachfellner (co-authored by Wolfgang Hofkirchner).<\/a><\/p>\n A master thesis at the Faculty of Informatics of the Vienna University of Technology in 2013 explored current open-source research platforms allowing collaboration for tasks relating to the build-up of an encyclopedia. The thesis is written in German. The abstract is in English. Load the full thesis down here.<\/a><\/p>\n Poster of the Master Thesis. Click on the picture to download pdf.<\/em><\/p>\n The International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS) commissioned BCSSS Scientific Council member Rainer Zimmermann<\/strong>, member of IASCYS, to establish an editorial committee on behalf of the Academy.<\/p>\n Negotiations with De Gruyter (the follow-up publisher of K. G. Saur) had been started long ago by BCSSS Board member Gerhard Chroust<\/strong>, Secretary General of the IFSR. An agreement is near. The Bertalanffy Center is ready to sign, as soon as the support of the online edition has been clarified.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=“2012″ tab_id=“1613194802548-57457e4b-7ba7″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n From 10 to 13 April 2012 the Campus of the University of Vienna was the venue of the EMCSR 2012<\/a>. 168 academics and practitioners attended the conference as well as 17 journalists (13 of whom were in training at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg) (click here<\/a> and here<\/a> for videos about the conference!).<\/p>\n In plena and in 19 symposia and a PhD colloquium in five parallel tracks the discussion focussed on the self-understanding of a diverse field of systems thinking, cybernetic thinking, complexity thinking, network thinking and else and the reflection of aims, scope and tools of this multitude of approaches. This was attempted by reflecting similarities as well as differences in the underlying, basic assumptions, on the one hand, and by assessing the impact of research based on these assumptions on society, on the other. The chair, Wolfgang Hofkirchner, laid out a framework for such a discourse (click here<\/a> or on the picture below).<\/p>\n Logo of the EMCSR 2012 (Prof. Michael Keller, Gestaltung, M\u00fcnchen)<\/em><\/p>\n The contributions were asked to be accordingly written and\/or presented in a way that makes understanding across disciplinary boundaries easy. Sessions were opened to different formats than conventional paper presentations only. Reports fed back to the starting point by trying to find answers to questions such as: have we actually made a step forward to the understanding of different fields and common features characteristic of our transdisciplinary way of thinking? Have we actually made a step forward to the understanding of the relation between underlying assumptions and how they enable us to practically affect the problem solving capability with regard to challenges of our time?<\/p>\n Wrap-up plenum (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n The conference manager, Stefan Blachfellner, facilitated the overall process.<\/p>\n Stefan Blachfellner, conference management, managing editor of the proceedings (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n Edgar Morin, former Director of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), going to celebrate his 92nd<\/sup> birthday this year, gave a talk with the Counsellor of the French Embassy in Vienna listening. He talked about reductionism and a way of thinking that disjoins. They are obstacles for changing the world in the right direction. Though it is rather uncertain that current societal trends will change, he said, there is still hope for humanity to master the global challenges. He referred to experiences made in history when fighting Nazism (click here for the full video of his keynote<\/a>).<\/p>\n Edgar Morin (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n The BCSSS awarded Morin with the Ludwig von Bertalanffy Award in Complexity Thinking. Prof. Rainer E. Zimmermann held the laudatio (click here for the text<\/a> and click here for the video of the ceremony<\/a>).<\/p>\n This document was signed and handed over to Edgar Morin together with a glass object<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The keynote was sponsored by the BCSSS and Univ. Prof. Dr. Hubert Christian Ehalt, Wien Kultur.<\/p>\n Ervin L\u00e1szl\u00f3, founder of the Club of Budapest, founder of the Giordano Bruno Globalshift University, warned that the window of opportunity for change is shrinking day by day. Current societal developments distort the planetary system. Information can help establish a coherent overall system (click here for an interview<\/a>).<\/p>\n Ervin L\u00e1szl\u00f3 in interview with Szabados Gabor (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n PowerPoint slides of Ervin L\u00e1szl\u00f3’s keynote. Click on each image to enlarge<\/em><\/p>\n This keynote was sponsored by the Bertalanffy Center, too.<\/p>\n P\u00e9ter Csermely, specialist in network theory, author of the book „Weak Links“, demonstrated that we can learn from biology. His working group at Semmelweis University in Budapest identified creative nodes in cellular networks. The adaptation potential of networks is optimal when the tradeoff between the effect of adaptation and the possibility of adaptation is well balanced (click here for the full video of his keynote<\/a>).<\/p>\n P\u00e9ter Csermely with interviewer Sandra Woehs (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n The book „Weak Links“<\/em><\/p>\n The PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here.<\/a><\/p>\n A short interview with OE1 from ORF in German can be found at this link.<\/a><\/p>\n P\u00e9ter \u00c9rdi from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences gave a memorial lecture on Luigi Ricciardi, a long-standing participant in the EMCSR, who passed away last year, against the background of the development of systems thinking in biology.<\/p>\n P\u00e9ter \u00c9rdi (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n Merrelyn Emery held the traditional W. Ross Ashby Memorial Lecture sponsored by the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR<\/a>). She outlined the major developments of open systems theory and confronted closed system conceptions from an engineering perspective.<\/p>\n Merrelyn Emery explaining the theories during her talk (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n The basic text can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n A round table about the history and the future of different approaches to systems was hosted by Carlos Gershenson from the Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem\u00e1ticas y en Sistemas at the Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico in Mexico City.<\/p>\n Carlos Gershenson (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n Keynote speaker P\u00e9ter \u00c9rdi stressed the importance of the ideas of the founders of systems theory and cybernetics. Others brought modern developments to the fore. Helena Knyazeva stressed complexity, Stefan Thurner underlined complex adaptive systems, and keynote speaker P\u00e9ter Csermely accentuated networks. Csermely placed emphasis on scientists being humble and open to the discussion of approaches that compete with their own ones. One point of such a discussion was touched by Alexander Laszlo \u2013 the relationship between predictability and emergence (click here for the full video of the round table<\/a>).<\/p>\n Round table. From the left Helena Knyazeva, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, P\u00e9ter \u00c9rdi, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Stefan Thurner, Medical University of Vienna, P\u00e9ter Csermelyi, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Alexander Laszlo, Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University, Washington (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n See Gershenson’s summary here.<\/a><\/p>\n The Bertalanffy Center donated a prize of \u20ac 1.000,00 for the PhD day. Four applicants out from six made it, eventually, to the conference. The PhD Colloquium and Award Committee included representatives of the International Academy of Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS<\/a>), the Giordano Bruno Globalshift University (GBGU<\/a>) and the BCSSS. A decision was taken based upon the reviews and based upon an evaluation of the performance of the competitors. The Ludwig von Bertalanffy Award for Young Scientists went to Jessica Dylan Foley from Ireland \u201cin recognition of the most promising transdisciplinary research demonstrating the principle of Unity through Diversity\u201d.<\/p>\n Members of the PhD Colloquium and Award Committee: Pierre Bricage, IASCYS, Alexander Laszlo, GBGU, Peter Fleissner, BCSSS (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n The winner of the Ludwig von Bertalanffy Young Scientist Award, Jessica Dylan Foley from Trinity College, Dublin (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n Every participant is encouraged to submit a full paper. Extended abstracts that were accepted for presentation shall be elaborated and reworked in the light of the discussion at the meeting. For the publication the Bertalanffy Center founds a new open access online journal for transdisciplinarity called „Systems. Connecting Matter, Life, Culture and Technology“. The editor-in-chief is Univ.Prof. Dr. Manfred F\u00fcllsack, professor for systems sciences at the University of Graz. Managing editors are Stefan Blachfellner and Robert Bichler.<\/p>\n Manfred F\u00fcllsack, Editor-in-Chief (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n Robert Bichler, Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication, University of Salzburg (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n It is the vision of the BCSSS that the next European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research will have an even stronger focus on the foundations of the different approaches to sort out which fundamental assumptions are helpful or needful to actually affect the course of civilisational development.<\/p>\n For the first time the European Union for Systemics (EUS\/UES<\/a>) and the World Organisation for Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC<\/a>) have become partner of the event. The International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS) did not only play an essential part in the PhD day but welcomed five new academicians. Robert Trappl, became the new President of IASCYS<\/a>.<\/p>\n 40 years for EMCSR \u2013 Robert Trappl, new President of the IASCYS (photo: emcsr)<\/em><\/p>\n The IFSR hosted afterwards a reflecting session with the aim to strengthen cooperation among different scientific societies and invited all partner organisations of the EMCSR 2012. Partner organisations were five national societies of four European countries (Austria, Greece, Spain, Ukraine), one European society and, in total, six international societies (like the ISSS, the International Society for the Systems Sciences, whose predecessor was founded with Ludwig von Bertalanffy participating).<\/p>\n In the forthcoming EMCSR even more organisations of the systems movement shall be involved.<\/p>\n The Rector’s first deputy, Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, University of Vienna, assured the continuing commitment of their university \u2013 which has been hosting the conference series since its beginning \u2013 to support EMCSR and serve as hub for other institutions to join in.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bcsss.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/david2.png\" "\\"david2\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nVienna 2001 | Bertalanffy\u2019s 100 Anniversary Conference (BAC 2001)<\/h1>\n
\n\u201c\u2026the overall fate of the world depends on the adoption by humanity of a new sort of values based on a general systems Weltanschauung. \u201cWe are seeking another basic outlook: the world as organization. This (outlook) would profoundly change the categories of our thinking and influence our practical attitudes. We must envision the biosphere as a whole\u2026with mutually reinforcing or mutually destructive interdependancies. We need a global system of mutually simbiotic societies, mapping new conditions into a flexible institutional structure and dealing with change through constructive reorganization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBertalanffy \u2013 personality and research;
\nMethodology \u2013 the General Systems Approach;
\nThe Tools (Dynamic Systems, Beyond Dynamic Systems, Cybernetics, Second Order Cybernetics),
\nIdeas from Application Fields (Physical Systems, Biological Systems, Social Systems) and
\nFuture Perspectives (A Unified View? and Lessons from Specialists?)
\nBAC 2001 took place despite there was not time enough to evaluate properly these two appraisals. Neither have the organizers the resources needed for organizing them consistently and harmoniously.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe trend we have spoken of appears to be toward science, that is, appropriate conceptual models of reality, without neglecting or denying human concerns. If this is so, science is more than the accumulation of facts and technological exploitation of knowledge in the service of the Establishment: it may still be able to present a grand view and to become deeply humanistic in its endeavour. If we achieve as much as contributing a bit toward humanization of science, we have done our share in the service of society and civilization\u201d. [Bertalanffy, L. von: \u201cRobots, Men and Minds. Part One: Toward a New Image of Man \u201d (page 114) 1967]\u201d<\/p>\nLudwig von Bertalanffy 110 Events<\/h1>\n
\n<\/strong>(pdf)<\/p>\n<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nEncyclopedia of Systems Science and Cybernetics Online (ESSCO)<\/strong><\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nVienna 2012 | European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research 2012 (EMCSR 2012)<\/h1>\n
The set-up<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nKeynote speaker Edgar Morin on complex thinking for a complex world <\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nKeynote speaker Ervin L\u00e1szl\u00f3 on information and coherence in nature and the cancer of human-world incoherence<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\nKeynote speaker P\u00e9ter Csermely on crisis responses and crisis management<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nKeynote speaker P\u00e9ter \u00c9rdi on forty years in biocybernetics<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nKeynote speaker Merrelyn Emery on open or closed systems? \u2013 bridging the gap<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nRound table on the past, present and future of cybernetics and systems research<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Ludwig von Bertalanffy <\/strong>Young Scientist <\/strong>Award<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nProceedings<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe future of the EMCSR<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n