SATM 4.4 General System Theory - Origins in the Systems Diciplines

In 1954 Von Bertalanffy (a biologist) gave institutional embodiment to his ambition by setting up, with Boulding (an economist), Gerard (a physiologist) and Rapoport (a mathematician), the Society for General System Research. This had four aims:

• To investigate the isomorphy of concepts, laws, and models in various fields, and to help in useful transfers from one field to another.
• To encourage the development of adequate theoretical model in field which lack them
• To eliminate the duplication of theoretical efforts in different fields
• To promote the unity of science through improving the communication between specialists

In Boulding well-know paper, General Systems Theory - the Skeleton of Science (1956), he argued that the aims of GST could be realized in two ways. Either you could seek to develop a theory of very general principles, which was von Bertalanffy's approach, or you could provide an ordering of different fields of study according to the apparent complexity of the basic "individual unit of behavior" each discipline concerned itself with. 

In table 4.1 Boulding notes that the characteristics of lower level systems can be found in higher level systems. Each level, however, presents emergent properties that cannot be understood simply in terms of an understanding of lower levels - hence the need for a new discipline.

        （Jackson, M.C. 2000, Systems Approaches to Management, Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, NY. PP52-52.)