The BCSSS has organised two events on the occasion of the anniversary of Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s birthday.

• Public Lecture

David Pouvreau, author of “The Dialectical Tragedy of the Concept of Wholeness – Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s Biography Revisited” (2009), speaks about

General systemology as founded and developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy
An hermeneutical system

on Wednesday, 9 November 2011, 18.00 c.t.,

in the historical lecture hall used by Ludwig von Bertalanffy himself:

Lecture Hall 42 (last floor, staircase 7, entrance at the arcade in the Arcade Court), Main Building, University of Vienna, Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring 1, 1010 Vienna

• Symposium
Systems thinking: what’s it for?

Ten years after BAC 2001 – Bertalanffy’s Anniversary Conference – which was organised by Wolfgang Hofkirchner and Elohim Jiménez-López at the Vienna University of Technology and which prepared the ground for the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science, the BCSSS invited distinguished systems theorists to reflect on the development of systems theory – its history and future.

Today, multiple crises challenge the sustainable development of civilised life on earth. What are the foundations of systems thinking that are required for succesfully intervening in the course of evolution of humanity?

Programme

• Presentations by

Elohim Jiménez-López, Vice-President, BCSSS (Austria)
Renewed Bertalanffian systems may overcome the perversity of the civilized (?) homosphere generated by the crisis of human values

Alexander László, Giordano Bruno Globalshift University (USA)
The Humanistic Bases of Systems Thinking

Magnus Ramage, The Open University, Milton Keynes (UK)
Bertalanffy amid the seven schools: multiple traditions within systems thinking

Helena Knyazeva, Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia)
The Contribution of the Russian Scientific Schools to the Development of Systems Thinking

Rainer E. Zimmermann, Munich University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
Ground & Existence Revisited: On Morin’s Approach to Systems

Joseph Brenner, International Center for Transdisciplinary Research (Switzerland)
Of Logic and Systems: Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Stéphane Lupasco

Birgit Zehetmayer, University of Vienna (Austria)
Bertalanffy’s anthropological vision today

Matjaž Mulej, President, International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (Slovenia)
Promotion of systemic/cybernetic behavior by ISO 26000 on social responsibility

• Discussion involving (alongside the presenters)

Manfred Blachfellner, Internationaler Controller Verein (Austria)
Stefan Blachfellner, B original Business and Communication Design (Austria)
Rainer Born, Johannes Kepler University of Linz (Austria)
Ockie Bosch, The University of Queensland (Australia)
Pierre Bricage, General Secretary, International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (France)
John Collier, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (South Africa)
Yagmur Denizhan, Boğaziçi University (Turkey)
José María Díaz Nafría, University of León (Spain)
Iryna Dobronravova, Kiev Shevchenko National University (Ukraine)
Raúl Espejo, Director-General, World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (UK)
Manfred Füllsack, University of Vienna (Austria)
Andreas Hieronymi, Training, Beratung und Coaching (Switzerland)
Helmut Löckenhoff, independent (Germany)
David Pouvreau, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (France)
John Raven, independent (UK)
Michel Saint-Germain, Université d’Ottawa (Canada)
Pamela Vesterby, independent (USA)
Vince Vesterby, independent (USA)

as well as BCSSS Board Members and other members of the Center

• Video: Interview with Gisèle Bertalanffy (interviewer: Michel Saint-Germain)

Date

10 November 2011, 9.00- (open end)

Venue

Lounge, Weingut am Reisenberg, Oberer Reisenbergweg 15, 1190 Wien (two coffee breaks, lunch and dinner as well as refreshments included): http://www.weingutamreisenberg.at/

Bus transfer

Will be organised from and to the Hotel de France, Schottenring 3, 1010 Wien (departure at the hotel at 8.30, departure from the venue at 22.00).

Registration

The symposium open to members of the Center is fully booked and cannot offer any more places.