Abstract
The aim of this essay is to survey the scope of Churchman’s thought, place it in the context of the American pragmatic tradition and highlight the enormous influence Churchman has had on some of the more prominent systems thinkers of the past two decades.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ackoff, R., 1961, The meaning, scope and methods of OR, Progress in OR, 1: 3–34.
Ackoff, R., 1973, Science in the systems age: beyond IE, OR and MS, Operations Research, 21:661–671.
Ackoff, R., 1974, The systems revolution, Long Range Planning, 7:2–20.
Ackoff, R., 1977, Optimization + objectivity = opt out, European Journal of Operational Research, 1:1–7.
Ackoff, R., 1978, The Art of Problem Solving, Wiley, New York, USA.
Ackoff, R., 1979a, The future of operational research is past, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 30:93–104.
Ackoff, R., 1979b, Resurrecting the future of operational research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 30:189–199.
Ackoff, R., 1988, C. West Churchman. Systems Practice, 1:351–355.
Ackoff, R., 2001, OR: after the post mortem. System Dynamics Review, 17:341–346.
Bonder, S., 1979, Changing the future of operations research, Operations Research, 27:209–224.
Britton, G. and McCallion, H., 1994, An overview of the Singer/Churchman/Ackoff school of thought. Systems Practice, 7:487–521.
Churchman, C.W., 1966, Perception and deception, Science, 153:1088–1090.
Churchman, C.W., 1967, Wicked problems, Management Science, 14:141–142.
Churchman, C.W., 1968a, The Systems Approach, Dell, New York, USA.
Churchman, C.W., 1968b, Challenge to Reason, McGraw Hill, New York, USA.
Churchman, C.W., 1970, Operations research as a profession, Management Science, 17:B37–B53.
Churchman, C.W., 1971, The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organisation, Basic Books, New York, USA.
Churchman, C.W., 1974, ‘Philosophical speculations on systems design’, Omega (The International Journal of Management Science), 2:451–465.
Churchman, C.W., 1979, The Systems Approach and its Enemies, Basic Books, New York, USA.
Churchman, C.W., 1980, The status of the systems approach. Omega (The International Journal of Management Science), 8:277–279.
Churchman, C.W., 1981, Trends in systems theory, in: Measurement for Management Decision, R. Mason, and E. Swanson, eds., Addison Wesley, Menlo Park, USA.
Churchman, C.W., 1982, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, USA.
Churchman, C.W. and Ackoff, R., 1950, Methods of Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy and Scientific Method, Educational Publishers, St Louis, USA.
Churchman, C.W., Ackoff, R. and Arnoff, E., 1957, Introduction to Operations Research, Wiley, New York, USA.
Davidson, D., 1984, Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK.
Dewey, J., 1909, The Bearing of Pragmatism Upon Education. In The Middle Works: 1899–1924, Vol. 4, 1976, J. Boydston, ed., Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, USA.
Dummett, M., 1976, What is a theory of meaning, in: Truth and Meaning, G. Evans and J. McDowell, eds., Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Dummett, M., 1978, Truth and Other Enigmas, Duckworth Publishers, London, UK.
Dummett, M., 1981, The Interpretation of Frege’s Philosophy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA.
Dummett, M., 1982, Realism, Synthese, 52:55–112.
Eilon, S., 1980, The role of management science, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 31:17–28.
Fildes, R. and Ranyard, J., 1998, The foundation, development and current practice of OR: an editorial introduction and overview, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 49:304–306.
Flood, R. and Jackson, M., 1991, Creative Problem Solving: Total Systems Intervention, Wiley. Chichester, UK.
Gadamer, H-G., 1960, Truth and Method, Translated by G. Barden, and J. Cumming, Cross Road, New York, USA. This edition first published, 1984.
Habermas, J., 1968, Knowledge and Human Interest, Translated by J. Shapiro, Beacon Press, New York, USA. This edition, 1972.
Habermas, J., 1981a, The theory of communicative action, Volume 1, Reason and the Rationalisation of Society, Translated by T. McCarthy, Beacon Press, Boston, USA. This edition, 1984.
Habermas, J., 1981b, The theory of communicative action, Volume 2, Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason, Translated by T. McCarthy, Beacon Press, Boston, USA. This edition, 1984.
Jackson, M.C., 2000, Systems Approaches to Management, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, USA.
James, W., 1897, The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA. This edition first published in 1956.
James, W., 1902, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA. This edition first published in 1975.
James, W., 1907, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA. This edition first published in 1975.
James, W., 1909a, The Meaning of Truth, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA. This edition first published in 1975.
James, W., 1909b, A Pluralistic Universe, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, USA. This edition first published in 1996.
Kant, I., 1781, Critique of Pure Reason, Translated by N. Kemp Smith, Macmillan, London, UK. This edition first published in 1929.
Kilman, R., 1983, The costs of organisation structure: dispelling the myths of independent divisions and organisation-wide decision making, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 8:341–357.
Kirby, M., 2000, Operations research trajectories: the Anglo-American experience from the 1940s to the 1990s. Operations Research, 48:661–670.
Kirkham, R., 1997, Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction, MIT Press, Cambridge, USA.
Marr, D. and Wilkinson, M., 2003, Dark Victory, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Australia.
Mason, R., 1988, Exploration of opportunity cost and consideration for future generations: two lasting contributions to systems thinking, Systems Practice, 1:367–375.
Mason, R. and Mitroff, I., 1981, Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK.
Matthews, D. 2004, Re-thinking Systems Thinking: towards a postmodern understanding of the nature of systemic inquiry, PhD Thesis, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Menand, L., 2001, The Metaphysical Club, Flamingo Press, London, UK.
Midgley, G., 2000, Systemic intervention: philosophy, methodology and practice, Contemporary Systems Thinking Series, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, USA.
Muller-Merbach, H., 1984, Inter-disciplinarity in operational research: in the past and in the future, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 35:83–89.
Muller-Murbach, H., 1988, Mutual understanding, revisited after nearly 25 years, Systems Practice, 1:385–397.
Peirce, C., 1877, The fixation of belief, Popular Science Monthly, 12:1–15.
Peirce, C., 1905, What pragmatism is, The Monist, 15:161–181.
Peirce, C., 1932, Collected Papers, C. Hartshorn, P. Weiss, and A. Burks, eds., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA.
Putnam, H., 1981, Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Quine, W.V.O., 1969, Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, Columbia University Press, New York, USA.
Rorty, R., 1967, The Linguistic Turn: Essays in Philosophical Method, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, USA.
Rorty, R. 1979. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.
Rorty, R., 1982, Consequences of Pragmatism, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, USA.
Rorty, R., 1991a, Objectivity, Relativism and Truth: Philosophical Papers, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Rorty, R., 1991b, Essays on Heidegger and Others: Philosophical Papers, Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Rorty, R., 1999, Philosophy and Social Hope, Penguin Books, New York, USA.
Schiller, F., 1903, Humanism: Philosophical Essays, Macmillan, New York, USA. This edition, 1912.
Schiller, F., 1907, Studies in Humanism, Macmillan, New York, USA.
Strawson, P., 1964, A problem about truth: a reply to Mr Warnock, in: Truth, G. Pitcher, ed., Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, UK.
Ulrich, W., 1983, Critical Heuristics of Social Planning: A New Approach to Practical Philosophy, Haupt Academic Publishers, Bern, Switzerland.
Ulrich, W., 1987a, Critical heuristics of social systems design, European Journal of Operational Research, 31:276–283.
Ulrich, W., 1988a, C. West Churchman — 75 years, Systems Practice, 1:341–350.
Ulrich, W., 1988b, Churchman’s process of unfolding: its significance for policy analysis and evaluation, Systems Practice, 1:415–428.
Ulrich, W., 1994, Can we secure future-responsive management through systems thinking and design?, Interfaces, 24:26–37.
Ulrich, W., 1999, An Appreciation of C. West Churchman. <http://www.isss.org/lumCWC.htm>
Ulrich, W., 2001, The quest for competence in systemic research and practice, Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 18:3–28.
Ulrich, W., 2002, Boundary critique, in: The Informed Student Guide to Management Science, H. Daellenbach and R. Flood, eds., Thomson, London, UK.
Wittgenstein, L., 1922, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translated by C.K. Ogden, Routledge, London, UK.
Wittgenstein, L., 1953, Philosophical Investigations, translated by G. Anscombe, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Matthews, D. (2006). Pragmatism Meets Systems Thinking: The Legacy of C. West Churchman. In: van Gigch, J.P., McIntyre-Mills, J. (eds) Volume 1: Rescuing the Enlightenment from Itself., vol 1. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-27589-4_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-27589-4_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-27587-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-27589-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)