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The concept of a system in modern science. There are systems in the world. Faculty of Correspondence and Distance Education

AT modern methodology of science, since the middle of the twentieth century, a new - systemic approach - an interdisciplinary philosophical-methodological and special-scientific direction has been formed, which has a high research and explanatory potential. As a special type of methodology, it involves isolating the general philosophical, general scientific and special-scientific levels, as well as considering the conceptual apparatus corresponding to each of them, the basic principles and functions.

As the researchers note, the idea of systemicity in an implicit, unreflected form is present in the reflections of many philosophers of the past. Thus, in ancient Greek philosophy, in the works of Plato and Aristotle, the idea of systemicity is widely represented, realized as the integrity of the consideration of knowledge, the systematic construction of logic, geometry. Later, these ideas were developed in the works of Leibniz, a philosopher and mathematician, in particular, in the "New System of Nature" (1695), in an effort to create a "universal science". In the 19th century, Hegel, in essence, generalized the experience of the philosophy of the New Age in developing the problem of systemicity, taking the integrity of the objects of study and the systemic nature of philosophical and scientific knowledge as the basis for reasoning. And although the principle of systematicity had not been clearly formulated by that time, the idea itself correlated well with the systematizations of Linnaeus in biology, Decandole in botany, the holistic study of biological evolution by Ch. Darwin, etc., which were widespread in natural science. A classic example of the application of the idea of consistency and integrity was Marx's doctrine of the socio-economic formation and his consideration of society as an "organic system".

Today philosophical principle of consistency is understood as a universal position that all objects and phenomena of the world are systems of various types and types of integrity and complexity, however, the question remains open and discussed which of the interpretations is more justified - ontological or epistemological. The traditional point of view prevailing today - ontological, originating from the system-ontological concepts of Spinoza and Leibniz, ascribes "systemic" to the objects of reality themselves, the task of the subject-researcher is to discover the system, its connections and relationships, describe, typify and explain them. But more and more clearly, an epistemological interpretation is making its way for itself, in which “systemic” is considered precisely as a principle inseparable from the theoretical attitudes of the subject-observer, his ability to imagine, construct the object of knowledge as a systemic one. In particular, well-known modern scientists, sociologist N. Luman, neurobiologists

U. Maturana and F. Varela sought to show that the system, structure, environment do not exist in natural or social reality, but are formed in our knowledge as a result of operations of distinction and construction carried out by the observer. However, it is impossible to deny that reality must have such "parameters" that can be represented as systems. Consistency appears, therefore, as a modern way of seeing an object and a style of thinking that has replaced mechanistic ideas and principles of interpretation. Accordingly, a special language is formed, including primarily such philosophical and general scientific concepts as systemicity, relation, connection, element, structure, part and whole, integrity, hierarchy, organization, system analysis, and many others.

The principle of systemic combines and synthesizes several ideas and ideas: systemic, integrity, correlation of part and whole, structural and "elementary" objects, universality, universality of connections, relationships, and finally, development, since not only static, but also dynamic, variability of system formations is assumed. . As one of the leading and synthesizing philosophical principles, it underlies systems approach- general scientific interdisciplinary and particular scientific system methodology, as well as social practice, considering objects as systems. It is not a strict theoretical or methodological concept, but as a set of cognitive principles, it allows fixing the insufficiency of an extra-systemic, non-holistic vision of objects and, expanding the cognizable reality, helps to build new objects of study, setting their characteristics, and offers new schemes for their explanation. It is close in orientation structural-functional analysis and structuralism, which, however, formulate rather "rigid" and unambiguous rules and norms, acquiring, accordingly, the features of specific scientific methodologies, for example, in the field of structural linguistics.

The main concept of system methodology is system received serious development both in methodological research and in general systems theory - the doctrine of a special-scientific study of various types of systems, the laws of their existence, functioning and development. The founder of the theory is L. von Bertalanffy (1930), his predecessor in our country was A.A. Bogdanov, the creator of "Tectology" (1913) - the doctrine of universal organizational science.

The system is an integral complex of interrelated elements; forms a special unity with the environment; has a hierarchy: it is an element of a system of a higher order, its elements, in turn, act as systems

lower order. So-called unorganized aggregates should be distinguished from the system - a random accumulation of people, various kinds of dumps, the “collapse” of old books from a junk dealer, and many others in which there is no internal organization, connections are random and insignificant, there are no holistic, integrative properties that are different from the properties of individual fragments. .

A feature of "living", social and technical systems is the transfer of information and the implementation of management processes based on various types of "goal setting". Various - empirical and theoretical - classifications of systems have been developed, their types have been identified.

Thus, well-known researchers of system methodology V.N. Sadovsky, I.V. Blauberg, E.G. Yudin singled out classes of inorganic and organic systems, in contrast to unorganized aggregates. Organic system - it is a self-developing whole that goes through stages of complication and differentiation and has a number of specific features. This is the presence in the system, along with structural, and genetic connections, coordination and subordination, control mechanisms, for example, biological correlations, the central nervous system, governing bodies in society and others. In such systems, the properties of the parts are determined by regularities, the structure of the whole, the parts are transformed together with the whole in the course of its development. The elements of the system have a certain number of degrees of freedom (probabilistic control) and are constantly updated following the change of the whole. In inorganic systems the relationship between the system and its elements is less close, the properties of the parts and their changes are determined by the internal structure, and not the structure of the whole, changes in the whole may not lead to changes in elements that exist independently and are even more active than the system as a whole. The stability of the elements determines the stability of such systems. Organic systems, as the most complex, require special research, they are the most promising in terms of methodology (Problems of Methodology of System Research. M., 1970. P. 38-39).

It follows from the distinction between these two types of systems that the concept element is not absolute and uniquely defined, since the system can be divided in different ways. An element is “the limit of the possible division of an object”, “the minimum component of a system” capable of performing a certain function.

The fundamental tasks that are being solved today in the field of the formation and development of the methodology of system research include the following: building concepts and models for the systemic representation of objects, developing techniques and apparatus for describing all system parameters: formalized - symbolic, ideal, mathematical - systems for describing real system objects and the possibility of applying the rules of inference. In specific sciences, at the level of special methodology,

system developments are carried out using specific methods, methods of system analysis, used specifically for this area of research.

The system formulation of the problem presupposes not just a transition to the "system language", but a preliminary clarification of the possibility of presenting an object as an integrity, isolating the system-forming connections and structural characteristics of the object, etc. However, there is always a need to find out subject relationship, those. the correspondence of concepts, methods, principles to a given object in its systemic vision and in combination with the methods of other sciences, for example, whether a mathematical apparatus can be applied to a systemically represented object and what it should be like.

A number of methodological requirements relate to the description of the elements of the object, in particular, it should be carried out taking into account the place of the element in the system as a whole, since its functions significantly depend on this; one and the same element must be considered as having different parameters, functions, properties, manifested differently in accordance with the hierarchical levels or type of system. An object as a system can be fruitfully studied only in unity with the conditions of its existence, the environment, its structure is understood as a law or principle of connecting elements. The system research program should proceed from the recognition of such important features of the elements and the system as the generation of a special property of the whole from the properties of the elements and, in turn, the generation of the properties of the elements under the influence of the properties of the system as a whole.

These general methodological requirements of the systems approach can be supplemented by its specific features in modern sciences. Thus, E.G. Yudin considered the development of the ideas of consistency and the application of the methodological principles of this approach in psychology. In particular, he showed that Gestalt psychology for the first time raised the question of the integral functioning of the psyche, presented the laws of Gestalt as the laws of organization of the whole based on the unification of functions and structure. At the same time, the approach from the standpoint of integrity, consistency, not only united the object, but also set the scheme for its dismemberment and analysis. It is known that Gestalt psychology and its schemes have been seriously criticized, but at the same time, “the main methodological ideas of the psychology of form hardly belong to history and are part of the entire modern psychology of culture, and traces of their fruitful influence can be found in almost all the main areas of psychology” (Yudin E.G. Methodology of science. Consistency. Activity. M., 1997. S. 185-186).

The greatest psychologist of the 20th century, J. Piaget, also interpreted the process of mental development as a dynamic system of interaction between the organism and the environment, which has a hierarchy of structures that are built on top of each other and are not reducible to one another. Implementing an operational approach and reflecting on the system-structural nature of the intellect, which is at the top of the system hierarchy, he expressed a new idea for his time about building a "logic of a holistic

stey”, which has not been implemented to this day. “In order to realize the operational nature of thinking, it is necessary to reach systems as such, and if ordinary logical schemes do not allow us to see such systems, then we need to build a logic of integrity” (Piaget J. Selected psychological works. M., 1969. S. 94).

In an effort to master the system methodology, applying its principles and concepts, the following should be borne in mind. The use of a systematic approach is not a direct road to true knowledge, as a methodological technique, a systematic vision only optimizes cognitive activity, makes it more productive, but to obtain and justify reliable knowledge, it is necessary to apply the entire “arsenal” of general methodological and special principles and methods.

Let's use the example of E.G. Yudin to understand what is at stake. The well-known scientist B.A. Rybakov, in an effort to establish the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, did not mean a systematic approach and did not use the relevant concepts, but combined and combined several different ways of analyzing the socio-political conditions of Kievan Rus of that time, sympathies and antipathies the author, expressed in the "Word", his education, stylistic and other features of the annals of that era. A genealogical table of Kyiv princes was compiled and used. In the course of the study, special systems of connections and relationships were clarified in each of the cases involved, which were not considered separately, but were superimposed on each other. As a result, the search area and the number of possible candidates were sharply reduced, and with a high degree of probability it was suggested that the author was the Kiev boyar Peter Borislavich, the chronicler of the Kiev princes. Obviously, the principle of integrity was used here to enhance the effectiveness of the study and overcome the fragmentation, incompleteness and partial nature of the factors. The result was undoubtedly interesting, the increase in knowledge was obvious, the probability is quite high, however, other experts in this field, in particular, D.S. Likhachev, expressed quite a lot of counterarguments and did not recognize the truth of the conclusions, the question of the author remains open today.

In this example, which simultaneously reflects the features of humanitarian research, where formalization and application of the mathematical apparatus is impossible, two points appeared: the first - the integrity (systematicity) of the object was constructed, in reality it was not a system with objective regular connections, the systemicity is presented only in its methodological function and has no ontological content; the second - the systematic approach should not be considered as a "direct path" to true knowledge, its tasks and functions are different and, first of all, as already mentioned, the expansion of the sphere of vision of reality and the construction of a new object of study, the identification of new types of connections and relationships, the application of new methods.

System methodology received new impetus in its development when referring to self-organizing systems or, in other words, when representing an object as a self-organizing

organizing system, for example, the brain, a community of organisms, a human collective, an economic system, and others. Systems of this type are characterized by an active influence on the environment, flexibility of the structure and a special "adaptive mechanism", as well as unpredictability - they can change their mode of action when conditions change, they are able to learn, take into account past experience. The appeal to complexly organized evolving and non-equilibrium systems led researchers to a fundamentally new theory of self-organization - synergetics, which arose in the early 70s of the twentieth century (the term was introduced by the German physicist G. Haken from the Greek sinergeia- assistance, cooperation), which combines system-information, structuralist approaches with the principles of self-organization, non-equilibrium and non-linearity of dynamic systems.

Philosophy of the New Age

This period in the life of society is characterized by the disintegration of feudalism, the emergence and development of capitalism, which is associated with progress in the economy, technology, and growth in labor productivity. The consciousness of people and the worldview in general are changing. Life gives birth to new geniuses. Science is rapidly developing, first of all, experimental and mathematical natural science. This period is called the era of scientific revolution. Science plays an increasingly significant role in the life of society. At the same time, mechanics occupies a dominant place in science. It was in mechanics that thinkers saw the key to the secrets of the entire universe.

The philosophy of modern times owes its development partly to the in-depth study of nature, partly to the ever-increasing combination of mathematics and natural science. Thanks to the development of these sciences, the principles of scientific thinking have spread far beyond the boundaries of individual branches and philosophy itself.

Rene Descartes - put the mind in the first place, reducing the role of experience to a simple practical verification of intelligence data. He sought to develop a universal deductive method for all sciences, based on the theory of rationalism. The first question of philosophy for him was the question of the possibility of reliable knowledge and the problem of the method by which this knowledge can be obtained.

Francis Bacon - unlike Descartes, he developed a method of empirical, experimental knowledge of nature. He believed that this could be achieved only with the help of science, comprehending the true causes of phenomena. This science must be a rational processing of the facts of experience.

A systematic approach is a direction in the methodology of scientific knowledge, which is based on the consideration of an object as a system: an integral complex of interrelated elements (I. V. Blauberg, V. N. Sadovsky, E. G. Yudin); sets of interacting objects (L. von Bertalanffy); sets of entities and relationships (A. D. Hall, R. I. Fagin, late Bertalanffy).

Speaking of a systematic approach, we can talk about some way of organizing our actions, one that covers any kind of activity, identifying patterns and relationships in order to use them more effectively. At the same time, a systematic approach is not so much a method of solving problems as a method of setting problems. As the saying goes, "The right question is half the answer." This is a qualitatively higher, rather than just objective, way of knowing.

A systematic approach is an approach in which any system (object) is considered as a set of interrelated elements (components) that has an output (goal), input (resources), communication with the external environment, feedback. This is the most difficult approach. The system approach is a form of application of the theory of knowledge and dialectics to the study of processes occurring in nature, society, and thinking. Its essence lies in the implementation of the requirements of the general theory of systems, according to which each object in the process of its study should be considered as a large and complex system and, at the same time, as an element of a more general system.

A detailed definition of a systematic approach also includes the obligatory study and practical use of the following eight of its aspects:

System-element or system-complex, consisting in identifying the elements that make up this system. In all social systems, one can find material components (means of production and consumer goods), processes (economic, social, political, spiritual, etc.) and ideas, scientifically conscious interests of people and their communities;

System-structural, which consists in clarifying the internal connections and dependencies between the elements of a given system and allowing you to get an idea of the internal organization (structure) of the system under study;

System-functional, involving the identification of functions for which the corresponding systems are created and exist;

System-target, meaning the need for a scientific definition of the goals and sub-goals of the system, their mutual linking with each other;

System-resource, which consists in a thorough identification of the resources required for the functioning of the system, for the solution of a particular problem by the system;

System-integration, consisting in determining the totality of the qualitative properties of the system, ensuring its integrity and peculiarity;

System-communication, meaning the need to identify the external relations of a given system with others, that is, its relations with the environment;

System-historical, which allows to find out the conditions at the time of the emergence of the system under study, the stages it has passed, the current state, as well as possible development prospects.

Almost all modern sciences are built according to the systemic principle. An important aspect of the systematic approach is the development of a new principle of its use - the creation of a new, unified and more optimal approach (general methodology) to knowledge, to apply it to any cognizable material, with a guaranteed goal of obtaining a complete and holistic view of this material.

A systematic approach and systematic research in science are becoming one of the main methodological directions in connection with overcoming the crisis of scientific knowledge at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

From a methodological point of view, the promotion of new systemic principles of cognition was associated with the rejection of a number of worldview premises that were consciously or unconsciously confessed by previous science. The main of these conditions were elementalism and mechanism.

The first proceeded from the postulate about the ontological reality of the last most simple and elementary building blocks of any object. This determined not only a special type of worldview, but also predetermined the direction of scientific research. The task was to get to the bottom of this simplest, indecomposable element that explains everything else. The problem of studying complex objects acted as the problem of reducing the complex to the simple, the whole to the part.

Disputes about the advantages of one approach or another in one way or another are ongoing to this day. This has its reasons:

1. When faced with an unknown object, the simplest and most natural way of knowing it is to decompose this object into its constituent parts and study each of them separately, in order to then proceed to synthesis.

2. The implementation of the elementary principle made it possible to find a single basis for objects of the most diverse nature.

3. Elementarism drew and draws its strength from the fact that it corresponds to the elementary logic of thinking, based on the scheme of genus-species relations.

The elementary approach still retains its methodological significance in scientific knowledge.

In the second half of the 19th century, new systemic principles of cognition began to penetrate into the sphere of natural science, for example, the teachings of Darwin.

Criticism becomes another important step towards improving the principles of the scientific worldview. mechanism and expansion on this basis of ideas about causality. One of the foundations of the mechanistic worldview was the principle of unambiguous determinism, i.e. the belief that ultimately any processes and phenomena can be explained through rigid causal connections, where each cause generates a single effect.

In the further methodological development of a number of special disciplines, new methodological means and methods of approach gradually emerge and develop, increasingly moving the conceptual schemes of modern science away from elementarism, reductionism, and mechanism. New principles of approach to reality are beginning to be applied not only in individual special sciences, but also to solve complex problems that are more and more insistently put forward before science and practice in our century. Attempts to solve these problems

lead to the creation of concepts of great generalizing power, and system-structural ideas occupy an increasingly significant place in their foundation.

In fundamental scientific disciplines, the development of methodologism turns the methodology of science into an independent field of modern scientific knowledge. In special scientific disciplines, the reflexive moment is more and more closely intertwined with the constructive one: the analysis of existing and the construction of new means of research is directly connected with the process of mastering the object of study.

As a result of these transformations, methodologism takes the form of movement towards the creation of a constructive, specifically scientific ontology. These modern means of constructive ontology serve to build a model of reality, which acts not as a goal, but only as a means of research movement.

Non-philosophical general scientific concepts and disciplines, which include system analysis, act as a special specific product of modern forms of self-consciousness of science. Their pre-

the premises are, firstly, the universalization of the means of scientific knowledge, which is increasingly noticeable both at the level of the conceptual basis of science and at the level of its formal means; secondly, the transition from the disciplinary to the subject method of setting scientific problems, already noted above.

Schematically, the main types of such concepts and disciplines in terms of subject relatedness and functions in scientific knowledge appear as follows:

Problem-content theories. They directly relate to reality, interpreted in a universal, and not in a highly specialized sense, and in a certain way theoretically reproduce this reality.

An example of this kind of theory is the concept noosphere and theoretical cybernetics. Their real impact on science runs along two lines: they give substantive expression to new types of research orientation in various fields of knowledge and, secondly, their appearance causes an active process of the emergence of new subjects of study and corresponding scientific disciplines. It was after the advent of theoretical cybernetics that a broad study of management processes and the emergence and development of a whole range of management disciplines began.

A variety of general scientific concepts and disciplines is also formed by the so-called methodological concepts. Examples are structuralism in linguistics and ethnography, varieties of structural-functional analysis in sociology, system analysis in solving problems of management and economics. A similar role in modern science is also played by such disciplines as information theory, game and decision theory, etc. All these disciplines act either as branches of modern applied mathematics or as relatively algorithmized sets of research procedures applicable to a wide range of phenomena, i.e. in the form of a technique for studying certain mass aggregates. System analysis combines both of these points.

The example of such concepts clearly shows the difficulties associated with the formalization of scientific knowledge. On the one hand, modern logical technique has sufficiently facilitated the process of constructing a wide variety of formal systems. Scientific knowledge widely operates with extremely abstract concepts and categories, and this creates a powerful incentive for numerous constructions of this kind. But, on the other hand, formalization can be justified only when movement in the formal plane either directly contributes to obtaining a meaningful result, or equips the researcher with an apparatus that allows speeding up the solution of the problem. Therefore, formalization makes sense only when it acts as a means, and not the goal of research, otherwise it turns into a pseudo-scientific appearance.

Systems approach- the direction of the philosophy and methodology of science, special scientific knowledge and social practice, which is based on the study of objects as systems. The systematic approach focuses the study on the disclosure of the integrity of the object and the mechanisms that ensure it, on the identification of diverse types of connections of a complex object and their reduction into a single theoretical picture. The concept of "systems approach" (eng. "systems approach") has been widely used since the end. 1960s - early. 1970s in English and Russian philosophical and systemic literature. Similar in content to the "systems approach" are the concepts of "systems research", "the principle of systemicity", "general systems theory" and "systems analysis".

A systematic approach is an interdisciplinary philosophical, methodological and scientific direction of research. Without directly solving philosophical problems, a systematic approach needs a philosophical interpretation of its provisions. An important part of the philosophical justification of the systems approach is consistency principle .

Historically, the ideas of a systematic study of the objects of the world and the processes of cognition arose in ancient philosophy (Plato, Aristotle), were widely developed in the philosophy of modern times (Kant, Schelling), were studied by Marx in relation to the economic structure of capitalist society. In the theory of biological evolution created by Darwin, not only the idea was formulated, but also the idea of the reality of supraorganismal levels of life organization (the most important prerequisite for systems thinking in biology).

The system approach is a certain stage in the development of methods of cognition, research and design activities, methods of describing and explaining the nature of analyzed or artificially created objects. The principles of a systematic approach replace those widely used in the 17th–19th centuries. concepts mechanism and resist them. The methods of a systematic approach are most widely used in the study of complex developing objects - multilevel, hierarchical, self-organizing biological, psychological, social, etc. systems, large technical systems, man-machine systems, etc.

Among the most important tasks of the systems approach are: 1) development of means for representing the objects under investigation and design as systems; 2) construction of generalized models of the system, models of different classes and specific properties of systems; 3) study of the structure of systems theories and various system concepts and developments. In a system study, the analyzed object is considered as a certain set of elements, the interconnection of which determines the integral properties of this set. The main emphasis is on identifying the variety of connections and relationships that take place both within the object under study and in its relationship with the external environment. The properties of an object as an integral system are determined not only and not so much by the summation of the properties of its individual elements, but by the properties of its structure, special backbone, integrative links of the object under consideration. To understand the behavior of systems (primarily purposeful), it is necessary to identify the management processes implemented by this system - the forms of information transfer from one subsystem to another and the ways in which some parts of the system influence others, the coordination of the lower levels of the system by the elements of its higher level of control, the influence on the latter of all other subsystems. Significant importance in the system approach is given to identifying the probabilistic nature of the behavior of the objects under study. An important feature of the system approach is that not only the object, but the research process itself acts as a complex system, the task of which, in particular, is to combine various object models into a single whole. System objects are very often not indifferent to the process of their research and in many cases can have a significant impact on it. In the context of the deployment of the scientific and technological revolution in the 2nd half. 20th century there is a further refinement of the content of the systematic approach - the disclosure of its philosophical foundations, the development of logical and methodological principles, further progress in building general systems theory . The systematic approach is the theoretical and methodological basis system analysis .

A prerequisite for the penetration of a systematic approach into science in the 20th century. first of all, there was a transition to a new type of scientific problems: in a number of areas of science, the problems of organization and functioning of complex objects begin to occupy a central place; cognition operates with systems, the boundaries and composition of which are far from obvious and require special research in each individual case. In the 2nd floor. 20th century tasks similar in type also arise in social practice: in social management, instead of the previously prevailing local, sectoral tasks and principles, large complex problems begin to play a leading role, requiring close interconnection of economic, social, environmental and other aspects of public life (for example, global problems, complex problems of socio-economic development of countries and regions, problems of creating modern industries, complexes, urban development, environmental protection measures, etc.).

The change in the type of scientific and practical tasks is accompanied by the emergence of general scientific and special scientific concepts, which are characterized by the use in one form or another of the main ideas of the system approach. Along with the spread of the principles of a systematic approach to new areas of scientific knowledge and practice from Ser. 20th century the systematic development of these principles in methodological terms begins. Initially, methodological studies were grouped around the problems of constructing a general theory of systems. However, the development of research in this direction has shown that the totality of the problems of the methodology of system research goes beyond the scope of the tasks of developing only a general theory of systems. To designate this wider scope of methodological problems, the term "systems approach" has become widely used.

The systematic approach does not exist in the form of a strict theoretical or methodological concept: it performs its heuristic functions, remaining a set of cognitive principles, the main meaning of which is the appropriate orientation of specific studies. This orientation is carried out in two ways. First, the substantive principles of the systems approach make it possible to fix the insufficiency of old, traditional subjects of study for setting and solving new problems. Secondly, the concepts and principles of the systems approach significantly help to build new subjects of study, setting the structural and typological characteristics of these subjects, and so on. contributing to the formation of constructive research programs. The role of a systematic approach in the development of scientific, technical and practice-oriented knowledge is as follows. Firstly, the concepts and principles of the system approach reveal a wider cognitive reality compared to that which was fixed in the previous knowledge (for example, the concept of the biosphere in the concept of V.I. Vernadsky, the concept of biogeocenosis in modern ecology, the optimal approach to economic management and planning, etc.). Secondly, within the framework of the system approach, new explanation schemes are developed in comparison with the previous stages of the development of scientific knowledge, which are based on the search for specific mechanisms of the integrity of the object and the identification of the typology of its connections. Thirdly, it follows from the thesis about the variety of object connection types, which is important for the system approach, that any complex object can be divided into several parts. At the same time, the criterion for choosing the most adequate division of the object under study can be the extent to which, as a result, it is possible to construct a “unit” of analysis that allows fixing the integral properties of the object, its structure and dynamics.

The breadth of the principles and basic concepts of the systems approach puts it in close connection with other methodological areas of modern science. In terms of its cognitive attitudes, the systems approach has much in common with structuralism and structural-functional analysis, with which he is connected not only by operating with the concepts of system, structure and function, but also by an emphasis on the study of heterogeneous relations of an object. At the same time, the principles of the systems approach have a broader and more flexible content; they have not undergone such a rigid conceptualization and absolutization, which was characteristic of some interpretations of structuralism and structural-functional analysis.

Systems approach

Systems approach- the direction of the methodology of scientific knowledge, which is based on the consideration of an object as a system: an integral complex of interrelated elements (I. V. Blauberg, V. N. Sadovsky, E. G. Yudin); sets of interacting objects (L. von Bertalanffy); sets of entities and relationships (A. D. Hall, R. I. Fagin, late Bertalanffy).

Basic principles of the systems approach

Integrity, which allows to consider the system simultaneously as a whole and at the same time as a subsystem for higher levels.
Hierarchy of the structure, that is, the presence of a set (at least two) of elements located on the basis of the subordination of elements of a lower level to elements of a higher level. The implementation of this principle is clearly visible in the example of any particular organization. As you know, any organization is an interaction of two subsystems: managing and managed. One is subordinate to the other.
Structuring, which allows you to analyze the elements of the system and their relationships within a specific organizational structure. As a rule, the process of functioning of the system is determined not so much by the properties of its individual elements, but by the properties of the structure itself.
Plurality, which allows using a variety of cybernetic, economic and mathematical models to describe individual elements and the system as a whole.
Consistency, the property of an object to have all the features of the system.

Basic definitions of the systems approach

The founders of the systematic approach are: L. von Bertalanffy, A. A. Bogdanov, G. Simon, P. Drucker, A. Chandler.

System - a set of interrelated elements that form integrity or unity.
Structure - a way of interaction of system elements through certain connections (a picture of connections and their stability).
Process - dynamic change of the system in time.
Function - the work of an element in the system.
State - the position of the system relative to its other positions.
The system effect is such a result of a special reorganization of the elements of the system, when the whole becomes more than a simple sum of parts.
Structural optimization is a targeted iterative process of obtaining a series of system effects in order to optimize the applied goal within the given constraints. Structural optimization is practically achieved using a special algorithm for the structural reorganization of system elements. A series of simulation models has been developed to demonstrate the phenomenon of structural optimization and for training.

Main assumptions of the systems approach

There are systems in the world
System description is true
Systems interact with each other, and, therefore, everything in this world is interconnected.
Therefore, the world is also a system

Aspects of the systems approach

A detailed definition of a systematic approach also includes the obligatory study and practical use of the following eight of its aspects:

system-element or system-complex, consisting in identifying the elements that make up this system. In all social systems, one can find material components (means of production and consumer goods), processes (economic, social, political, spiritual, etc.) and ideas, scientifically conscious interests of people and their communities;
system-structural, which consists in clarifying the internal connections and dependencies between the elements of a given system and allowing you to get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe internal organization (structure) of the system under study;
system-functional, involving the identification of functions for which the corresponding systems are created and exist;
system-target, meaning the need for a scientific definition of the goals and sub-goals of the system, their mutual coordination with each other;
system-resource, which consists in a thorough identification of the resources required for the functioning of the system, for the solution of a particular problem by the system;
system-integration, consisting in determining the totality of the qualitative properties of the system, ensuring its integrity and peculiarity;
system-communication, meaning the need to identify the external relations of a given system with others, that is, its relations with the environment;
system-historical, allowing to find out the conditions at the time of the emergence of the system under study, the stages it has passed, the current state, as well as possible development prospects.

Literature

A. I. Rakitov "Philosophical Problems of Science: A Systemic Approach" Moscow: Thought, 1977. 270p.
V. N. Sadovsky "System approach and general systems theory: status, main problems and development prospects" Moscow: Nauka, 1980
System Research. Yearbook. Moscow: Nauka, 1969-1983.
Philosophical and methodological studies of technical sciences. - Questions of Philosophy, 1981, No. 10, p. 172-180.
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Savelyev A. V. Ontological extension of the theory of functional systems // Journal of Problems of the Evolution of Open Systems, Kazakhstan, Almaty, 2005, No. 1(7), p. 86-94.
Savelyeva T. S., Savelyev A. V. Difficulties and limitations of the systems approach in brain science. Materials XI Intern. conference on neurocybernetics "Problems of neurocybernetics". Rostov-on-Don, 1995, p. 208-209.

Links

Agoshkova E.B., Akhlibininsky B.V. Evolution of the concept of a system // Questions of Philosophy. - 1998. - No. 7. - S. 170-179.
Sidorov S.V. Rules for the implementation of a systematic approach in the management of a developing school // Electronic journal “Knowledge. Understanding. Skill ». - 2010. - No. 2 - Pedagogy. Psychology.
Systems approach // Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Joseph O'Connor The Art of Systems Thinking. - 2008.
Joseph O'Connor, Ian McDermott The Art of Systems Thinking: Essential Skills for Creativity and Problem Solving // "Alpina Publisher". - M ., 2011. - No. 978-5-9614-1589-6.

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See what the "Systemic Approach" is in other dictionaries:

The direction of the methodology is specially scientific. knowledge and social practice, which is based on the study of objects as systems. S. p. contributes to the adequate formulation of problems in specific sciences and the development of an effective strategy for them ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

systems approach- SYSTEMIC APPROACH direction of philosophy and methodology of science, specifically scientific knowledge and social practice, which is based on the study of objects as systems. S. p. focuses research on the disclosure of the integrity of the object and ... ... Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

The direction of the methodology of scientific knowledge and social practice, which is based on the study of the object as a system. A systematic approach contributes to the adequate formulation of problems in specific sciences and the development of an effective strategy for them ... ... Ecological dictionary

In cultural studies methodol. basis of cultural studies as a science. Aimed at the integration of research. material accumulated decomp. areas of humanitarian knowledge that study culture (philosophy of culture, theory of culture, ... ... Encyclopedia of cultural studies

SYSTEMS APPROACH- a set of ways to consider the relationships and integrity of complex systems. S. p. is the subject of a special scientific discipline of the general theory of systems. Management can be defined as the ordering of a system. S. p. (or system analysis) appeared ... ... Russian encyclopedia of labor protection

systems approach- The study of the functional and structural interrelations of natural phenomena, considered as a system in which the boundaries, possibilities of use, as well as the position and role in the next natural system in rank are determined. Syn.:… … Geography Dictionary

The direction of the methodology of scientific knowledge and social practice, which is based on the consideration of objects as systems; focuses research on revealing the integrity of the object, on identifying the diverse types of connections in it and reducing them to ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

English systemanalysis; German systemmethod. The direction of the methodology of scientific research, which is based on the consideration of a complex object as an integral set of elements in the totality of relations and connections between them. Antinazi. Encyclopedia ... ... Encyclopedia of Sociology

SYSTEMS APPROACH- SYSTEMS APPROACH. The method of scientific knowledge, which is based on the consideration of objects as systems; involves the analysis of phenomena as a complex unity, not reducible to a simple sum of elements. S. p. replaced the widespread in ... ... A new dictionary of methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of teaching languages)

The direction of the methodology of scientific research, which is based on the consideration of a complex object as an integral set of elements in the totality of relationships and connections between them Dictionary of business terms. Akademik.ru. 2001 ... Glossary of business terms