Living Systems Theory (Under Construction)

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Living Systems Theory (Under Construction)

Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive Faculty and Researcher Publications Faculty and Researcher Publications 2008-06-30 Living Systems Theory (under construction) Bradley, Gordon http://hdl.handle.net/10945/38246 Living Systems Theory (under construction) Agranoff, B. W. (2003). Obituaries: James Grier Miller. Retrieved May 26, 2008, from University of Michigan: The University Record Online: http://www.ur.umich.edu/0203/Feb03_03/obits.shtml Bertalanffy, Ludwig von. (1968). General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. New York: George Braziller. Crawford, Raymond R. (1981). An Application of Living Systems Theory to Combat Models. Master’s Thesis. Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School. http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA101103 Duncan, Daniel M. (1972). James G. Miller's Living Systems Theory: Issues for Management Thought and Practice. The Academy of Management Journal, 15:4, 513-523. http://www.jstor.org/stable/255145?seq=1 Kuhn, Alfred. (1979). Differences vs. Similarities in Living Systems. Contemporary Sociology, 8:5, 691- 696. http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094- 3061(197909)8%3A5%3C691%3ADVSILS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 Miller, James Grier. (1979). Response to the Reviewers of Living Systems. Contemporary Sociology, 8:5, 705-715. http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094- 3061(197909)8%3A5%3C705%3ARTTROL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 Miller, James Grier. (1995). Living Systems. Niwot: University of Colorado. (out of print) Oliva, Terence A. and R. Eric Reidenbach. (1981). General Living Systems Theory and Marketing: A Framework for Analysis. Journal of Marketing, 45:4, 30-37. http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022- 2429(198123)45%3A4%3C30%3AGLSTAM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R Parent, Elaine. (1996). The Living Systems Theory of James Grier Miller. Retrieved November 29, 2007, from International Institute for Systemic Inquiry and Integration: http://www.newciv.org/ISSS_Primer/asem14ep.html Parsons, Talcott. (1979). Concrete Systems and Abstracted Systems. Contemporary Sociology, 8:5, 696-705. http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094- 3061(197909)8%3A5%3C696%3ACSA%22S%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V Swanson, G. A. (2007). James Grier Miller (1916-). Retrieved May 26, 2008, from International Society for the Systems Sciences: http://projects.isss.org/James_Grier_Miller. Weaver, Warren. (1948). Science and Complexity. American Scientist (36), 536. http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/genre/weaver/weaver-1947b.htm Return to Insurgent Frameworks home Page This page was last modified on June 30, 2008 Webmaster Gordon Bradley mailto:[email protected] .

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Serendipities Vol.1 No1.Fin
ARTICLE A “Not Particularly Felicitous” Phrase: A History of the “Behavioral Sciences” Label Jefferson D. Pooley [email protected] Abstract The article reconstructs the history of the "behavioral sciences" label, from scattered interwar use through to the decisive embrace of the newly prominent Ford Foundation in the early Cold War. The rapid uptake of the label, the article concludes, was the result of the Ford Foundation’s 1951 decision to name its social science unit the “Behavioral Sciences Program” (BSP). With Ford’s en- couragement, the term was widely adopted by quantitative social scientists eager to tap the founda- tion’s social science funds. The label’s newness and its link to the gigantic foundation’s initiative generated much suspicion and resistance as well. Keywords Behavioral sciences, Ford Foundation, Cold War There are few behavioral scientists today. But as recently as the 1950s and 1960s, self-identified “behavioral scientists” occupied the elite ranks of American social science. The rapid uptake of the label was the result of the Ford Foundation’s 1951 decision to name its social science unit the “Be- havioral Sciences Program” (BSP). With Ford’s encouragement, the term was widely adopted by quantitative social scientists eager to tap the foundation’s social science funds. The label’s newness and its link to the gigantic foundation’s initiative generated much suspicion and resistance as well. This paper reconstructs the label’s career from scattered interwar use through to Ford’s embrace. Existing histories trace the term back to psychologist James Grier Miller’s Committee on the Be- havioral Sciences at the University of Chicago.
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212 © 1978 Scientific American
212 © 1978 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC Adaptation The manifest fit between organisms and their environment is a major outcome of evolution. Yet natural selection does not lead inevitably to adaptation; indeed, it is sometimes hard to define an adaptation by Richard C. Lewontin he theory about the history of life iors that appear to have been carefully These "organs of extreme perfection" that is now generally accepted, the and artfully designed to enable each or were only the most extreme case of a TDarwinian theory of evolution by ganism to appropriate the world around more general phenomenon: adaptation. natural selection, is meant to explain it for its own life. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural two different aspects of the appearance It was the marvelous fit of organisms selection was meant to solve both the of the living world: diversity and fitness. to the environment, much more than the problem of the origin of diversity and There are on the order of two million great diversity of forms, that was the the problem of the origin of adaptation species now living, and since at least chief evidence of a Supreme Designer. at one stroke. Perfect organs were a dif 99.9 percent of the species that have Darwin realized that if a naturalistic ficulty of the theory not in that natural ever lived are now extinct, the most con theory of evolution was to be successful. selection could not account for them but servative guess would be that two billion it would have to explain the apparent rather in that they were its most rigorous species have made their appearance on perfection of organisms and not simply test, since on the face of it they seemed the earth since the beginning of the their variation.
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Extending Life Concepts to Complex Systems*
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What Is Systems Theory?
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Lemke Feeling and Meaning Trifonas Handbook SENT
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