A Systemic World View

Abstract

In this, the last chapter, we shall generalize some of the results of the previous chapters. We shall thus come up with the core of a systemic world view. This Weltanschauung is a continuation of certain philosophical traditions and is also in tune with contemporary science. But it should not be mistaken for the popular “systems philosophy,” a new version of holism according to which everything is a system (false) and the patterns of being and becoming are basically the same at all levels (false). Our systemist philosophy is neither holistic nor atomistic: it acknowledges the variety of properties, kinds and patterns found in the world and, by using certain elementary formal tools, it avoids the obscurities of traditional philosophy. Ours is, in short, a kind of scientific ontology. (Cf. Vol. 3, Introduction.) Let us review some of its assumptions.