Systems: Approaches, Theories, Applications

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XIII

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2. A Category-Theoretic Approach to Systems in a Fuzzy World

   • Michael A. Arbib, Ernest G. Manes

   Pages 1-26

3. Parallelism, Slides, Schemas, and Frames

   • Michael A. Arbib

   Pages 27-43

4. The Fundamental Duality of System Theory

   • E. S. Bainbridge

   Pages 45-61

5. Towards a Systems Methodology of Social Control Processes

   • Walter Buckley

   Pages 63-70

6. States and Events

   • Mario Bunge

   Pages 71-95

7. Understanding Social and Economic Change in the United States

   • Jay W. Forrester

   Pages 97-119

8. Pattern Discovery in Activity Arrays

   • George J. Klir

   Pages 121-158

9. A Purposive Behavior Model

   • Peter Milner

   Pages 159-168

10. Complexity and System Descriptions

    • Robert Rosen

    Pages 169-175

11. Concerns, Comments, and Suggestions

    • William E. Hartnett

    Pages 177-197

12. Back Matter

    Pages 199-202

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For many years I have believed in a particular style of education for myself. The idea is to focus on matters that you want to learn about, find a modest amount of money, and then organize a symposium of those matters, inviting knowledgeable individuals to participate - and, by extension - to come and help with my education. The Eighth George Hudson Symposium held at Plattsburgh, New York on April 11-12, 1975 was another attempt on my part to learn something. The ostensible reason for the Symposium was explained in the Announce­ ment of the Symposium as follows: Systems Theory is currently one of the exciting areas of intellectual activity, attracting persons from diverse disciplines. In fact, it has almost become the prototype of inter­ disciplinary effort. As such, it needs the interchange of ideas, viewpoints, and opinions as a necessary condition for growth. This Symposium was convened to bring together a number of persons- some of them experts and some beginners - for two days of con­ centrated interaction on Systems Theory. The breadth of the interests of the invited speakers can be noted from their "home" disciplines but space limitations forestall any attempt to document their actual current interests which range from brain function to political institutions to technoethics. The speakers were chosen for their expository and interactive ability as well as for their work in Systems Theory and ample time has been allowed for discussion with them.

• complexity
• modeling
• network
• parallelism
• reduction

• Dept. of Mathematics, State University College, Plattsburgh, USA

  William E. Hartnett

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