Skip to main content

Old Confusion in New European Systems Thinking

  • Chapter
Systems Thinking in Europe
  • 296 Accesses

Abstract

The answer comes easily enough if we ask where systems originate? They originate in the human mind, or more specifically in the human language capacity. The notion is wrong that we discover systems. It is wrong even when we talk about nature with its systematic order among microorganisms, plants, and animals. Nature has no intention and makes no plans. It all happened by chance. Even the human central nervous system is a system only because we say so.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Aquinatis, S. Thomæ Doctoris Angelici Opera Omnia (Sixteen Volumes). Iussu impensaque Leonis XIII P.M. edita ex Typographia Polyglotta, Rome 1882–1948.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, Noam (1976 a) Reflections on Language. Pantheon Books, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, Noam (1976 b) On the nature of language. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 280, 46–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Churchman, C. West (1988) “Discoveries in an Exploration into Systems Thinking” in Yearbook of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, Vol. XXXI (ed. William J. Reckmeyer). New York: ISSS, pp. 39–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericson, Richard F. (1987) “System-Induced Hypocrisies: Our Quintessential Moral Dilemma” in Yearbook of the International Society for Systems Research, Vol XXX (ed. John A. Dillon, Jr.). Louisville: ISGSR, pp. 77–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1978) The Genes of Universal Grammar. Lund: University of Lund (ISBN 91-970270-0-6).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1979) “Human Language as a Biological Behaviour Determinant” in Improving the Human Condition (ed. Richard F. Ericson). Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 961–970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1980) Speech and Language. Lund: University of Lund (ISBN 91-970270-2-2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1981 a) Are the genes of universal grammar more than structural? Hereditas 95, 213–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1981 b) “Biological Study of Language as a Key in General Systems Research” in General Systems Research and Design (ed. William J. Reckmeyer). Louisville: SGSR, pp. 547–555.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1985) Biological Linguistics. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag (ISBN 87-500-2573-2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1986 a) Sociobiology and biological linguistics. Essays in Human Sociobiology 2, 129–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1986 b) “Sign Language of the Deaf” in Signs of Life (ed. Bernard T. Vervoort) Amsterdam: IGL, pp. 57–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto (1989) “Is Speaking Man an Ethical Creature?” in Operational Research (eds. M.C. Jackson, P. Keys & S.A. Cropper). New York: Plenum, pp. 259–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto, Nerup, Jørn & Holbek, Bertha (1986) A common genetic origin of specific dyslexia and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus? Hereditas 105, 165–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Otto, Nerup, Jørn & Holbek, Bertha (1987) Further indication of a possible common genetic origin of specific dyslexia and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Hereditas 107, 257–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1820) Ueber das vergleichende Sprachstudium. Abh. der Akad. (Berlin) as printed in Die sprachphilosophischen Werke Wilhelm’s von Humboldt (ed. H. Steinthal). Berlin 1884: Ferd. Dümmlers Verlagsbuchhandlung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaynes, Julian (1976) The evolution of language in the late pleistocene. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 280, 312–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung, Richard (1987) “A Quarternion of Metaphors for the Hermen-eutics of Life” in Yearbook of the International Society for General Systems Research, Vol XXX (ed. John A Dillon, Jr.). Louisville: ISGSR, pp. 25–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kierkegaard, Søren (1923) Samlede Værker, Vol. IV (eds. A.B. Drachmann, J.L. Heiberg & H.O. Lange). Copenhagen: Gyldendal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, Vladimir A. (1980) An algebraic model of ethical cognition. J. math. Psychol. 22, 83–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, Vladimir A. (1986) “Modelling of Quantum-Mechanical Phenomena with the Help of the Algebraic Model of Ethical Cogniton” in Yearbook of the Society for General Systems Research, Vol. XXIX (ed. Rammohan K. Ragade). Louisville: SGSR, pp. 63–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marius, Richard (1986) Thomas More. A Biography. London: Fount Paperbacks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prigogine, Ilya & Stengers, Isabelle (1985) Order Out of Chaos. Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. London: Fontana Paperbacks.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hansen, O. (1991). Old Confusion in New European Systems Thinking. In: Jackson, M.C., Mansell, G.J., Flood, R.L., Blackham, R.B., Probert, S.V.E. (eds) Systems Thinking in Europe. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3748-9_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3748-9_25

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6669-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3748-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics