International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
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Complex Systems Biology and Hegel’s Philosophy
No full text Hegel was a German philosopher who was a major figure in the philosophical movement known as German idealism. In this study I will argue that Hegel’s philosophy has similarity to the self-organization theories of Prigogine and Kauffman, and is therefore an idea in advance of its times. The development of thought and thing is at the core of Hegel’s work. In The Phenomenology of Mind, he tackles the development of recognition and being, subject and object, and self and other, - from simple to complex forms. In The Science of Logic, Hegel deals with the progress of categories from abstract to concrete, - and pure being to absolute idea. In The Philosophy of Nature, his interest is in how nature evolves through the mechanism of self-organization. Hegel was writing before Darwin proposed the theory of evolution, and his dialectic is aimed at analyzing and describing development in the logical sense. The common feature of these works is their analysis of the fundamental structures by which order is generated. Hegel struggled to produce the concept of life from that of matter. He proposed that matter should develop into organism, but only in a logical sense with subjectivity and centralization producing spontaneous order. In The Philosophy of Nature, Hegel divides natural philosophy into three parts, mechanics (space and time, motion, and astronomy), physics (from physical to chemical process), and organics (minerals, vegetables, and animals). In Hegel’s view, nature develops logically. Nature itself is a system of self-organization through the random motion of the contingent. Hegel would like to say that the basis of life is the non-equilibrium self-referential structure. In more modern terminology, we could interpret this as meaning that the first organism emerged from interaction between high polymers. Kaneko proposes a model of complex systems biology, which I will argue, Hegel was proposing in his metaphysics 200 years ago. Kaneko conceptualizes life as a living system that develops when interaction between the elements in a system is sufficiently strong. Living creatures exhibit flexibility and plasticity through fluctuations in these elements. Complex systems biology uses a dynamical systems approach to explain how living things acquire diversity, stability and spontaneity. First, simple single-celled organisms arose through interactions between proteins and nucleic acids. These are the archae-bacteria in modern terminology, or the universe itself in Hegel’s terminology. Next, the development of eukaryote cells from the prokaryotes is explained by symbiogenesis or endosymbiotic theory. According to this theory, mitochondria and plastids were formerly free-living bacteria that were taken inside another cell as an endosymbiont. Hegel would call this the universe’s self-particularizing. In other words, cells consist of cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane. They represent the first individual or self. The symbiogenesis theory means that the other comes into the self and then a new more complex self emerges. Next, multicellular organisms appeared. These were networks of cells or systems of selves. They reproduce sexually and necessarily die. The process of individualization is complete. This is just a return to universality. The dynamism between universality and individuality is self-referential. Universality (the first simple prokaryote) becomes individuality (the complex animal), and it then returns to universality (human beings with spirit). An animal reproduces itself and necessarily dies, and then as an individual, the animal returns to the universality of genus. However, the individual animal is unaware of this, only spirit knows it. Here, it is important to observe that spirit emerges from nature. Nature has the purpose of producing organism from matter and then spirit from organism. It is teleology without theology depending only on contingent and complex systems biology.  
Contributing to Sustainability through Translation in Governing the Anthropocene
No full textThere are many factors that contribute to changes in the Earth’s system, one of which is humanity. Due to the loss of habitat related to human activities, slightly less than a quarter of Earth’s terrestrial biomes are untouched. We seem to be living in a transition period from the Holocene epoch into the Anthropocene epoch. We are faced with many and diverse kinds of environmental changes that have been taking place. It is apparently a new phase in the history of humanity as well as the planet Earth which is being shaped by human forces and natural forces. The Earth that we live on is a permanently changing system. It is changing irreversibly through human activity, which will leave a substantial trace in the geological record of the Earth’s history. Some of these changes are permanent, even on a geological time scale. Since the beginning of the 19th century, there has been a rise in the number of human beings from under a billion to over six billion now. A rapidly growing population has had a global impact on the environment and made the exploitation of natural resources soar. There have been major changes to the Earth in terms of landscape and biodiversity. As a consequence of the global impact of human activities, sustainability of the Earth in the age of the Anthropocene has important consequences. This could pose a potential threat to biodiversity and international peace apart from geology. As a force of nature, humanity needs to act responsibly in order to compensate for the human impact on the environment and engage in processes that will re-shape a future that is morally acceptable. All global human initiatives are about people working together across different languages and cultures around the world. Social sciences can also play a part in understanding the Anthropocene. Therefore, I will focus on how translation could help to coordinate international initiatives and communicate more effectively in order to address the Anthropocene. Better communication will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of global initiatives. This will result in human action changing from uncoordinated individual action to coordinated social action at either local or global levels. Coping with (governing) the challenges of the age of the Anthropocene will require a collaborative effort taking into account multilingual communication
Designing a Future for Humans to Fourish: Reframing the Long Crisis of the Anthropocene
No full textWe now find ourselves as a systems thinking community inquiring into planetary governance for climate and ecological politics. The Anthropocene demands a planetary response, and yet we often find even our fellow travelers tethered to discourses of technological management, cultural change, and right action. Perhaps we might now advocate a strong role for social systems design as a process for continual engagement of citizens as stakeholders, as advocated by Christakis, Ulrich and others. As we have seen power (economic and political) separate from its cultural histories, and become globalized, we may find ourselves in trajectories of action with marginal power to effect societal outcomes. We are faced with a dual mandate of restorative system design, recovering human needs in our communities, and policy system design, restoring the long historical arc toward democratic governance. And as these are both designable contexts, systemic design can integrate ecological, technological and design thinking to guide policy in more productive ways
Using Critical Systems Thinking to Promote Reflexivity on an Engineering Sacrosanct Concept
No full textThis paper presents a systemic intervention in which a group of researchers and engineering students used critical systems thinking ideas to promote reflexivity on a basic concept that underlies engineering practice: efficiency. In particular we explored a situation in which students had to deal simultaneously with issues of efficiency and justice. Engineering students are frequently trained to design efficient systems or to improve the efficiency of already existing systems. Although engineering and economic efficiency are not the same, young engineering students tend to equate and value both of them. However, within many contexts efficiency is not the only relevant criteria for judging among different alternative solutions to engineering problems. Justice and other ethical considerations are also frequently relevant. Not all efficient technical solutions are also the most fair, and vice versa. In this paper we describe a research inquiry in which a group of engineering students were invited to choose among diverse solutions involving issues of justice and efficiency. Based on the work of a group of scholars such as John Rawls, John Nash, Robert Aumann, and Howard Raiffa, the students explored different conceptions of justice as well as their relationships with efficiency. During this process that involved both individual and collective work, we found evidence that the students became engaged in uncovering and questioning their ways of thinking and behaving, as well as their moral frameworks. Initially we found a tendency among engineering students to be unwilling to deviate from the solutions that involve Pareto efficiency, to give priority to efficiency over justice, to understand justice only within the context of efficiency, as well as to experience difficulties in developing rational arguments to reach rationally justifiable conclusions on issues of justice and efficiency. The research revealed that senior undergraduate and master engineering students frequently experience a substantial difficulty in arguing coherently in debates about practical rationality, something that is in stark contrast with their good ability to deal with technical issues and mathematical calculations. At the beginning of the experiment disputed questions related to justice and efficiency were frequently treated not as a matter of rational enquiry and justification, but as a problem of personal opinions and unarticulated presuppositions that were relegated to the realm of irrational acts of belief. The use of boundary critique and several critical systems thinking tools contributed to change the way engineering students made and justify their choices among competing conceptions of justice, and to develop a new notion on how to reach a balance between efficiency and justice. The discussion helped students to reflect on wider issues that involved their role in issues of social justice in their society. The changes that students experienced were not the result of the researchers’ intentions to convince the students of making some particular choices, but of a dialogical rather than a monological approach to ethical issues and practical rationality. This dialogical approach involved the exploration of different alternative boundary judgements that promote reflexivity on what and whose views are included in or excluded from analysis. Students were able to understand that different ethical choices result from choosing diverse boundary judgements
How to Eliminating Adverse selection Action? Comparative Analysis on Credit Evaluation System and Guarantee System in Chinese E-Commerce market
No full textCompared to the traditional market, the e-commerce transaction still could not get rid of information asymmetry between the online sellers and online buyers. Adverse selection actions brought by information asymmetry have negative impact on e-marketing and reduce the efficiency of the online transaction. Now website such as TAOBAO (http://www.taobao.com) are seeking ways to reduce adverse selection action. Widely used approaches are credit scoring system and guarantee system. This paper takes transaction data from U disk market in TAOBAO as samples and analyzes the role of credit scoring system and guarantee system in Chinese e-commerce market. The results showed that the credit scoring system and guarantee system can effectively counteract negative effect from the adverse selection actions. Although the credit scoring system has a significant impact on transaction volume; guarantee system has greater impact on the trading volume than the credit scoring systems. In addition, relationship between the guarantee system and credit scoring system are not substitutes but complement for each other. In the case of the existence of the guarantee system, online consumers’ purchase for online goods options is still subject to the impact of the credit scoring system. The paper proposes thoughts to improve credit scoring system and guarantee systems to promote the efficiency of e-marketing in China
Synthesizing Systemic Intervention Approaches: Combining Viable System Model, Knowledge Management, and Toyota Production System for a Sustainable Holistic Management Model
No full textNon-profit service organizations existing in dynamic environments are often presented with management challenges, such as necessity for non-centralized management structures, knowledge retention, and meeting diverse stakeholder demands. Many intervention approaches exist to address these challenges, such as the viable system model (VSM), knowledge management (KM), and the Toyota production system (TPS). These approaches each stem from specific welantschauungen (world views), capable of leading interventions in particular problem contexts. Previous work such as total systems intervention, creative design of methods, and boundary critique provide roadmaps on how to combine different approaches to act in complex problem contexts. However, they require the analyst to possess significant systems thinking knowledge. This research explores a complementarist framework to assist those that are not educated in systems thinking in intervening in complex problem contexts. The proposed framework is presented through a case study based on a non-profit service organization that performs knowledge-based project work in a dynamic environment. The development of the proposed complementarist approach is presented through 1) the problem context definition, 2) selection of applicable intervention approaches, 3) the analysis and matching of relevant literature to the problem context, and 4) illustration of the resulting framework for the case study organization. Discussion on potential future applications and development of the proposed framework are also presented
Leadership for Sustainability of Socio-Ecological Systems
No full textThe 60th Meeting of the ISSS in 2016 will address an urgent global need for leadership in academic and applied sectors of society to develop a worldwide systemic sustainability agenda, focused on the wellbeing and future health of socio-ecological systems (SES). We ask participants to focus urgent attention on the systemic balance between science, policy, ethics and human action needed to achieve greater synergy between natural and human systems, including technology. This requires new ways to understand and manage the complex socio-ecological interface, 'coupling' natural and human system models scientifically, culturally, and in practical applications; and integrating knowledge to realize a new paradigm for system wholeness. In particular we wish to build interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary partnerships to explore the relationship between 'crisis science', 'anticipatory science', and 'sustainability science', including ways to enhance resilience, ecological health, regeneration, adaptability, and creative potential in socio-ecological systems. We also call upon attendees to address critical development needs for achieving these goals through education, institutional cooperation, community to intergovernmental stewardship, management practice, entrepreneurial opportunities, and both individual and professional development. The related concept of "Unity in Diversity" aims to enhance both diverse and shared qualities necessary to achieve sustainability, and to go beyond it to more creative planetary symbiosis. It captures our aspirations for a better future than is likely to result from disconnected or fragmented ideas and actions. Unity in Diversity recognizes the critical importance, necessity, and beauty of differences and discrete or individual processes, while also finding balance and harmony among those elements in nature and humanity. It means true holism, bringing together diverse philosophies in a new way that resolves conflicts in knowledge and society. Similarly, the concept of "Humanity in Technology" recognizes an extremely bright technological future that is certainly coming, but that should be infused with and designed with humanity; i.e., truly appropriate technology for human development. It refers to a natural balance that has always been necessary between the goals and the means for living in all creatures. Technology is the capacity for doing, which throughout the ages has existed in relation to values, supporting them or savagely curtailing them. "Humanity in Technology" means harmonizing form and function to ensure human values we can agree on. Ancient wisdom, sometimes forgotten in modern times, tells us that 'means' cannot really be different in quality from their 'ends'; that they actually cultivate and characterize what we ultimately achieve and how that serves humanity. Generally guided by these principles of wholeness and appropriate development, we are making a major effort to connect with other societies, government and non-government institutions, political sectors, community and individual actors, and academic disciplines involved in global stewardship. Sharp divisions have fragmented and compartmentalized our collective approaches, and we must now apply clear principles of both science and humanity so that we as a human colony no longer operate in opposition to the natural systems that sustain us. Feedbacks from the imbalances we have created are now threatening to degrade the quality and abundance of human and other life, and thus compelling us to find solutions. 2016 will be the Society's 60th birthday - "Shasti Poorthi" as it is celebrated in Vedic-Hindu tradition. It is a special time of entering maturity, marking one's transition from a material Being to a Spiritual Being with higher aspirations for humanity and one's own self-knowledge. It is therefore both fitting and symbolic that the 60th annual meeting of the ISSS will celebrate this renewal and rebirth in partnership with institutions in India. Recognizing our global heritage and joint responsibility we are planning a collaborative venue with Indian Institutions of Higher learning to build multi-cultural understanding, consensus, and exchange on key issues in system science and sustainability. Connecting scholars and professionals in India and the USA in real time creates a valuable opportunity to combine the unique talents of two cultures and their present and historical worldviews. But it also represents a sizeable technological challenge. Facilitating this connection will require advanced communication technology that is capable of exchanging much more than words and facts. We hope to create a semantic presence in which we may share deep scientific, political, cultural, and ethical contexts. We thus call on corporate involvement for a collaborative demonstration of the future of communication technology. We will also mark our 60th anniversary and 'coming of age' by entering a new phase of global responsibility. In 2016 we will inaugurate the first ISSS "Policy Congress" that will extend the reach of the system sciences to greater society by identifying systemic issues and creating policy recommendations for key decision-makers and institutions. Our conference should thus identify key issues and provide clear statements of fact, need, purpose, and action. We also wish to encourage new international education development, especially at graduate and professional levels, aimed at investigating and applying more whole system understanding from a multi-cultural perspective. We call for participation of ethicists and spiritualists representing a wide variety of organizations, to work in partnership with scientists and decision makers as we together envision the future of our unique planetary and human system
Symmathesy--A Word in Progress
No full textThis work is a prologue on the development of the term Symmathesy to refer to the charactieristic of living systems best described as mutual learning. The term Symmathesy is a combination of the greek prefix "sym" meaning togther, combined with the greek word "mathesi" meaning learning. A Symmathesy is defined as either a noun or a verb. Symmathesy provides a language to study the processes of mutual learning through communication, relationship, interaction, play, interdependency and contextual evolution. This is a beginning effort to name the study of the liminal realm between the chaos of change in an ever evolving set of interactions, and the order of the context which is itself an interface. Symmathesy (Noun): An entity composed by contextual mutual learning through interaction. This process of interaction and mutual learning takes place in living entities at larger or smaller scales of symmathesy. Symmathesy (Verb): The process of interaction, in its multiple variables, that produces a mutual learning context
Systems Research: How do we discover what we need to know, according to whom, and for what purpose?
No full textThe idea of the Anthropocene, an era in which human presence and behavior have become the most important factors of change on the Earth, increases long-standing questions about research. How do we discover what we need to know according to whom and for what purpose? The goal of our presentation is to introduce some consideration for a systemic approach to research and to provide stepping stones toward a path forward. At a time in which the most troubling problems are often labeled as systemic (e.g. global financial relationships, environmental concerns, weather-related catastrophes, etc.) there is a need to reevaluate the ways in which we learn about and model the worlds in which we live. Increasingly, thought leaders recognize that critical thinking and positivistic approaches, while valuable, are insufficient to comprehensively and constructively address the most pressing issues of our time. Our ability to capture the dynamic nature of systems remains limited, though. As the urgency of issues related to governing the Anthropocene becomes more prevalent, Systems Research and application in Systems Practice is gaining increased attention across and beyond the Systems Sciences
Adverse Selection Behavior and Counteracting Mechanisms in E-Commerce Market: Case Study from Taobao.com（China）
No full text Adverse selection refers to a market process in which undesired results occur when buyers and sellers have asymmetric information; the bad products or services are more likely to be selected by consumers. Compared to the traditional market, the e-commerce transaction still could not get rid of the adverse selection problems，which seriously affect network online consumer buying behavior and reduce the efficiency of the online transaction. Now in China some trading platforms such as Taobao.com（China）are seeking some counteracting mechanisms to reduce adverse selection problems. Widely used mechanisms are credit scoring mechanism and guarantee mechanism. This paper takes transaction data from U disk market in Taobao.com as samples and analyzes the role of credit scoring mechanism and guarantee mechanism in Chinese e-commerce market. The results showed that the credit scoring mechanism and guarantee mechanism can effectively offset the negative impact from the adverse selection problems. Although the credit scoring mechanism has a significant impact on transaction volume; guarantee mechanism has greater impact on the trading volume than the credit scoring mechanisms. In addition, relationship between the guarantee mechanism and credit scoring mechanism are not substitutes but complement for each other. In the case of the existence of the guarantee mechanism, online consumers’ purchase for online goods options is still subject to the impact of the credit scoring mechanism. The paper proposes strategy recommendations to improve credit scoring mechanism and guarantee mechanisms to promote the efficiency of online transactions.