Systems research and the hierarchy of world systems: General systems in special chaos

AbstractThe hierarchy of systems is described as parallel to the hierarchy of military titles: General systems as the universe; Major General Systems as the earth; the Major Systems of earth—physical, biological and social—each with its subsystems; ‘kernel’ systems, which try to describe the ‘core of the diverse major systems’ (these divide into ecological‐evolutionary systems which have the quality of being ‘resurgent’) and ‘corporal’ systems, such as organisms and organizations. Then there are the ‘private’ systems, which are the ‘minute particulars’ of the real world. Cutting across this hierarchy are the ideologies, which might well be called ‘lieutenant’ systems, as they are in place of images of the more complex systems of the real world. The General Systems movement might help ideologies to become more realistic; it is showing some ecological resurgence, and it has to sustain both its ‘special’ aspect as mathematical modelling and its more general, philosophical aspect. It must also be aware that systems emerge from a matrix of chaos, and that all reality is not systematic.