Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The reader is encouraged to visit the Principia Cybernetica website (http://
pespmc1.vub.ac.be), an extensive condensed repository of historical and con-
temporary thinking addressing the age-old philosophical question—What is the
meaning of life?—by starting with a formal definition:
Systems Theory
:
The transdisciplinary study of the abstract organiza-
tion of phenomena, independent of their substance,
type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence. It in-
vestigates both the principles common to all complex
entities, and the (usually mathematical) models that
can be used to describe them (2).
2.
GENERAL SYSTEM THEORY
:
THE LAWS OF
INTEGRATED WHOLES
Von Bertalanffy (1) developed the tenets of system theory in the late 1920s
(when he himself was in his twenties). He drew attention to a new perspective as
a method, which he called "organismic biology," that assigns a self-
organizational dynamics to biological systems. To this end he developed the
kinetic theory of open systems, characterized by equifinality and steady state.
His main goal was to unite metabolism, growth and morphogenesis, and sense
physiology into a dynamic theory of stationary open systems. He spoke of it as
an attempt at explanation, calling it "The System Theory of the Organism." It
was not until the late 1940s that he recognized that "there exist models, princi-
ples and laws that apply to generalized systems or their subclasses irrespective
of their particular kind, the nature of the component elements, and the relations
or 'forces' between them. We postulate a new discipline called General System
Theory." What sustains this systems view is the recognition that one cannot
compute the behavior of the whole from the behavior of its parts. More impor-
tantly, the preservation of the multitude of interacting atoms, molecules, cells,
tissues, and organs is valued by the complex of relationships that entail the or-
ganization and not by the individuality of their participation.
When we try to pick up anything by itself
we find it is attached to everything in the universe.
—John Muir
This grand unification concept was criticized as pseudoscience and said to
be an attempt to connect things holistically. Such criticisms would have dissi-
