Some Streams of Systemic Thought (Draft update — May 2001)

* * *Originated in 1996 by Dr. Eric Schwarz, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Extended in 1998, including items from the The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant (1933).Elaborated in 2000-2001 from many sources for the International Institute for General Systems Studies.

Currently a research project of the IIGSS.- - -

This rendition is the property of the International Institute for General Systems Studies.All Rights Reserved.

Errors and omissions in this chart are solely attributable to the IIGSS.

Anti-chaos & Adaptation

Stuart Kauffman

CriticalityPer Bak

Self-organization

Dissipative Systems

Ilya Prigogine

Complex Dynamical Systems

Ralph Abraham

Chaos TheoryM.J. Feigenbaum

NonlinearSystems

Systems Biology

Robert Rosen

EcodynamicsKenneth Boulding

General Systems TheoryMajilo

Mesarovic

Dynamic ProgrammingRichard Bellman

Instrumental PragmatismJohn Dewey

Psychological Pragmatism

William James

Pragmatic SemioticsCharles S. Peirce

Whole Systems Design

Harold Nelson

General Systems Philosophy

Ervin Laszlo

Dialectical Idealism

Georg Hegel

Evolutionary Philosophy

Herbert Spencer

Neuchatel Evolutionary

ModelEric Schwarz

Natural EvolutionCharles Darwin

1809-1881

CyberneticsNorbert Wiener

Information TheoryClaude Shannon

Classical Thermodynamics

Clausius, Boltzmann

Semantic TheoryDonald MacKay

Informatics(Computer Science

& Engineering)

Mathematics of Feedback &

ElectrodynamicsJames

Clerk-Maxwell

Feedback governorJames Watt

Sciences of the

ArtificialHerbert Simon

Social SystemsTalcott Parsons

Sociological Systems

Walter Buckley

Social Entropy TheoryKenneth D. Bailey

Autopoietic Social Systems

Niklas Luhmann

Management CyberneticsPeter Senge

Appreciative SystemsGregory Bateson

Social EcologyEric Trist,

Fred Emery

Family Systems Therapy

Watzlewick

Systems EcologyHoward T. Odum

Programmable LoomJoseph-Marie Jacquard

Analytical EngineCharles Babbage

Theory of ComputationAlan M. Turing

Rational PhilosophyAristotle

384-322BC

Symbolic LogicGeorge Boole

Symbolic LogicAugustus de Morgan

Applied Mathematics

John von Neumann

Artificial Intelligence

Marvin Minsky

Cellular Automata

Artificial Neural Nets

Designing SystemsBela H. Banathy

TeleonicsGyuri Jaros

Critical SystemsMichael C. Jackson,

Robert Flood,Werner Ulrich

Total Systems InterventionRobert Flood

Multi-MethodologyJohn Mingers

MetamodelingJohn Van Gigch

Self-organized Economics

W. Brian Arthur

InfodynamicsStanley Salthe

ConventionalismHenri Poincaré

Fractal SystemsBenoit

Mandelbrot

Artificial LifeChris Langton

Mathematical Social Science

Anatol Rapoport

Chaotic SystemsEdward Lorenz

Complex Systems(Santa Fe Institute)

Homeostatic SystemsWalter Cannon

Queuing Theory

HolismJan Smuts

TektologyA.A. Bogdanov

Knowledge Sciences

Brian Gaines

EngineeringArchimedes

Systems Development John Warfield

Linkage PropositionsLen Troncale

Idealistic PhilosophyPlato

Systemic DevelopmentRichard Bawden

Synergetics IIR. Buckminster

Fuller

Rheomodal Systems

David Bohm

Cybernetic SemiosisDouglas R. Hofstadter

Transformational Linguistics

Naom Chomsky

General SemanticsAlfred Korzybski,

Systems TrendsKenneth E.F. Watt

Geophysiology (Gaia)James E. Lovelock

Hierarchy TheoryHoward H. Pattee

Developmental StructuralismJean Piaget

Co-creative ProcessHector Sabelli

Holonomic SystemsKen Wilber

Communicative ActionJürgen

Habermas

Complex Evolutionary Systems

Peter M. Allen

Knotted SystemsLouis Kauffman

Interpretive SystemologyRamses Fuenmayor,Hernan Lopez-Garay

Informational MicrodynamicsVladimir Lerner

Social SemioticsFloyd Merrell

Socio-CyberneticsR. Felix Geyer

PansystemsWu Xuemou

Critical OntologyMichel Foucault

Metasystem TransitionTurchin, Heylighen, Joslyn

Systemic SelfnessPaul Ryan

Homeorheotic Systems

William Irwin Thompson

Systems SemioticsLuis Rocha,

Howard Pattee

Epistemology of ScienceSir Arthur Eddington

Time DilationLorentz

Topology of Meaning

R. Ian Flett

Philosophy of PhysicsJohn Archibald Wheeler

Mathematical Topology

Catastrophe Theory

René Thom

GeometrodynamicsAlbert Einstein

Quantum SystemsPlanck, Bohr,

de Broglie, Dirac,Schrödinger

Semantic PragmatismLudwig Wittgenstein

Geometry of Meaning& Reflexive Universe

Arthur M. Young

Abstraction of Physical LawsGalileo Galilei

Observational Astronomy

Tycho Brahe

Heliocentric AstronomyNicolaus Copernicus

Socio-TechnicalSystems

Harold Linstone

Software Theory

Social PsychologyAbraham Maslow

Systems Anthropology

Margaret Mead

Mathematical AstronomyJ. Kepler

StructuralismClaude

Levi-Strauss

ProgrammingAda Lovelace

Engineering DesignLeonardo da Vinci

Human ScienceGiambattista Vico

Geological SuperorganismJames Hutton

BiosphereEduard Suess

Earth as OrganismYevgraf

Korolenko

Earth as OrganismVladimir Vernadsky

Species CyberneticsLotka & Voltarra

HolonicsJeffrey Stamps

Politics of BenefitCicero

Electronic Digital Prototype

Atanasoff & Berry

Electronic Digital Computing

Eckert & Mauchly

Operating SystemsBrooks et al

Operating LanguagesKenneth Iverson et al

EndosymbiosisLynn Margulis

Fuzzy Systems

Lofti Zadeh

Fuzzy LogicBart Kosko

Calculus of Variations

Dialectical MaterialismKarl Marx

Paradigmatic Revolutions

Thomas Kuhn

Periodic Table

Dmitry Mendeleev

Systematic MedicineHippocrates

MedicineCelsus

Clinical MedicineThomas Sydenham

Conservation of matterAntoine Lavoisier

Physical ChemistryRobert Boyle

AntibacterialsAlexander Fleming

Electromagnetic Propagations

Heinrich Hertz

AntisepsisLister

Clinical Psychiatry

Benjamin Rush

Conservation of Energy

Joule

Intrinsic UncertaintyHeisenberg

SuperstringsBrian Greene, et al

EvolutionAlfred Wallace

Pendulum Clock & Wave Theory of LightChristiaan Huygens

DeterminismLaplace

Scientific Philosophy

Jacques Monod

Mathematical Nominalism

Gottfried von Leibniz

Immaterial Empiricism

George Berkeley

EcologyC.S. Holling

Bio-cyberneticsManfried Eigen

TranscendentalismRalph Waldo

Emerson

Natural PhilosophyNicholas von Cusa

Political HegemonyFrederick the Great

Semiotic Umwelt

Jakob von Uexküll

Bio-semiosisJesper

Hoffmeyer

Comparative LinguisticsBenjamin Lee Whorf

Atomisitc Linguistics

Antoine Fabre d'Olivet

Symbolic LogicWillard Van Orman Quine

Operating hardware

Blauw et al

Linear Programming

Optimality Theory

SynergyPeter A. Corning

Appreciative SystemsWilliam E. Smith

HolonicsArthur Koestler

Mathematical PhilosophyPythagoras

c.580-500BC

GeometryEuclid

Logical PositivismRudolf Carnap

ProcessHenri

Bergson

Meta-Skepicial EmpiricismDavid Hume

Political PragmatismJohn Locke

Political RomanticismJ.J. Rousseau

Critical Transcendental Idealism

Immanuel Kant

Fluxation& Unified Opposites

Heraclitusc. 540-480 B.C.

Cynic PhilosophyAntisthenes

CynicismDiogenes

Dialectic Stoicism

Zeno of Citium

Religious StoicismEpictetus

StoicismMarcus Aurelius

Cosmological UnityGiordano Bruno

Philosophy of the WholeBaruch Spinoza

Nature Philosophyvon Schelling

Will & Idea in NatureArthur Schopenhauer

PerspectivismFriedrich Nietzsche

NoosphereTeilhardde Jardin

Decision Theory

Geometric Programming

Utility Theory

Laws of FormGeorge

Spencer-Brown

Blown Up SystemsShoucheng OuYang

Structured SoftwareYourdon,

Constantine, DeMarco,

Critical Theory of Society

Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno

Ecological Cybernetics

Garrett Hardin

I Ching2000-1000 B.C.

Social CyberneticsStuart Umpleby

Eco-pathologyRachel Carson

Sructuralist Mathematics

Bourbaki

KEY: white general systems red cybernetics black physical sciences blue mathematics magenta computers & informatics green biology & medicine yellow symbolic systems orange social systems olive ecology gray philosophy cyan systems analysis purple engineering

General SystemologyD.H. McNeil

Anthropological Linguistics

Edward Sapir

International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics

Charles François1997

Mathematical Logic

Bertrand Russell

General Systems TheoryYi Lin

Classical Mathematics

Development of Mentation

Walter Lowen

Punctuated EvolutionStephen J. Gould

Communicational CyberneticsKlaus Krippendorff

AtomismDemocritus

Sophistic PhilosophySocrates

Organizing relationsNeedham, Woodger

Rationalistic Dualism

René Descartes

Analysis of Complexification

Conrad H. Waddington

Radical Constructivism

Ernst von Glasersfeld

Autopoietic Systems

Rod Swenson

Unity & StasisParmenides

AtomismLeucippus

DialecticZeno of Elea

NaturalismThales

ReciprocitiesAnaximander

Scientific Positivism

Francis Bacon

Scientific EmpiricismRoger Bacon

Scientific MethodRobert Grosseteste

Pan-ecologyJohn Muir

Systems Philosophy

Mario Bunge

ModelingJ.L. le Moigne

InheritanceGregor Mendel

GenomicsCraig Venter,

Francis Collins

Systemics of Benefit

Warren Ziegler

Eco-futurismHazel Henderson

Critical PhenomenologyEdmund Husserl

Empirical Sensationalism

Etienne Condillac

Evolutionary OrganicismSaint-Simon

Empirical PositivismErnst Mach

Positivism & Sociology

Auguste Comte

PositivismLucretius

PositivismEpicurus

PositivismAristapippas

UtilitarianismJeremy Bentham

Empirical Utilitarianism

J.S. Mill

Transcendental Idealism

Johann Fichte

Psychological Determinism

Thomas Hobbes

DeterminismVoltaire

ProgressivismCondorcet

IntentionalityFranz Brentano

ExistentialismMartin Heidegger

Demographic Cybernetics

Thomas Malthus

Political EconomyAdam Smith

Modern Economics

John Maynard Keynes

EconomicsPaul Samuelson

Simulation

Problematiques& Planning

Hasan Ozbekhan

Autopoietic Systems

Humberto Maturana, Francisco

Varela

Harmony of OppositesLao Tzu

c. 570-490 B.C.

StatisticsKarl Pearson

Pagan Celts

Philosophy of Science

Fritjof Capra

Metaphysics of Science

Gary Zukav

Economic Cybernetics

David Ricardo

Information Theory

L. Brillouin

Linguistic Mathematics

Hekki Heiskanon

Relativism

Postmodernism

Evolutionary Positivism

Richard Dawkins

DeconstructionismJacques Derrida

Relativity of RationalitesFeyerabend

Structuralistic Semiology

Ferdinand de Saussure

SociologyEmil

Durkheim

NarratologyRoland Barthes

Language & Symbolism

Comparative Languages

William Jones

Literary SemioticsUmberto Eco

Logical PositivismA.J. Ayer

Scholasticical Empiricism

Thomas Aquinas

PersonalismRenouvier

RationalismAvicenna

RationalismAverroës

PsychoanalysisSigmund Freud

Analytic PsychologyCarl Jung

Scholasticical Sciences

Albertus Magnus

Scientific PhilosophyPaul C.W. Davies

Philosophy of Physics & MathematicsF. David Peat

ElectromagnetismAmpere, Kirchhoff,

Faraday et al

ElectrostaticsBenjamin Franklin

MagnetismGauss

Biostructures(chirality)

Louis Pasteur

MedicineMoses

Maimonides

Scholastical Logic, Dialectic & Linguistics

Peter Abelard

ScholasticismSaint Anselm

Noetic SystemsWalter J. Ong

Semiotic CatholicityRandolph F. Lumpp

Media Semiotics

H. Marshall McLuhan

SkepticismMichel

Montaigne

MaterialismDenis Diderot

Management Science

Philosophy of Regularity

Philosophy of IrregularityRiver Map & Luo Book

Sociality& Self

Confucius

YinYangFu Xi

Divination

Formal Regularity

Zhu Xi

TessellationsRoger Penrose

General Systems Evolution

Erich Jantsch

Ecological DemographicsPaul Ehrlich

Stabile SystemsClaude Bernard

Paradoxical Imagery

M.C. Escher

Anatomical Medicine

Galen

MedicineAvenzoar

MedicineTaddeo Alderotti

MedicineGuy de Chauliac

Anatomical MedicineAnreas Vesalius

Chemical MedicineAureolus Paracelsus

Microbialsvon Leeuwenhoek

CirculationWilliam Harvey

Modern Theoretical Physics

Classical Physics

Critical PhysicsRonald W. Moses

Cosmological Physics

Stephen Hawking

EnvironmentalismDavid Brower

Dialectical NaturalismFriedrich

Engels

Grand Unified TreoriesSteven Weinberg

Fuzzy SystemicsVladimir Dimitrov

General System TheoryLudwig von Bertalanffy

Operational ResearchRussell L. Ackoff,

Stafford Beer

First Order Cybernetics

Sciento-politicsIan Mitroff

Political Systemics

Anthony Wilden

Military HegemonyAlexander the Great

Scientific Intuitionism

Michael Polanyi

Self-Reference & Autonomy

Control Theory

Operations Research

General Systems

Purposeful SystemsRussell L. Ackoff

Philosophy of SystemsThomas Cowan

ExperimentalismE.A. Singer

Inquiring SystemsC. West Churchman

General Systems Thinking

Gerald M. Weinberg

Management CyberneticsBarry Clemson

Systems CyberneticsW. Ross Ashby

Organicism & ProcessAlfred North Whitehead

General Systems Modeling

George Klir

Perceptual Control Theory

William T. Powers

Living SystemsJames Grier Miller

Control System

Engineering

Systems DynamicsJay W. Forrester,Donella Meadows

DNACrick, Watson

ImmunizationJonas Salk

Directive CorrelationSommerhoff

Conversation Theory

Gordon Pask

Politics of CynicismNiccolo Machiavelli

Mechanistic Physics

Isaac Newton

Critical EpistemologyKarl Popper

Linear & Nonlinear

Mathematics John Casti

Hyper- mathematics

Charles Muses

Soft Systems Methodology

Peter Checkland

Rational Mechanics

Approximation- Estimation Theory

Grey SystemsSifeng Liu, Yi Lin

General TropodynamicsSoucheng OuYang, Yi Lin

AlgebraAryabhata

AlgebraBrahmagupta

AlgebraBhaskara

AlgebraOmar Khayyam

AlgebraFibonacci

Rotational Invariance

P.W. Bridgeman

IndianPhilosophy

Scientific ManagementFrederick W. Taylor

Recyclical UniverseHindu Mythology

Competitive Evolution

Thomas Huxley

Systems & Procedures

Heroic LegendsHomer

Rosetta StoneEgypt

AppliedGeneral Semantics

S.I. Hayakawa

Cyber-semioticsSøren Brier

General SemioticsThomas Sebeok

SynergeticsHermann Haken

Comparative AnthropologyFranz Boas

Systems EngineeringHarold Chestnut,Andrew P. Sage

Systems AnalysisArthur D. Hall,Van Court Hare

Second Order Cybernetics

Heinz von Foerster

Topology of Cybernetics

Warren McCulloch

Viable SystemsStafford Beer

Holographic Systems

Karl Pribram

Constitutional Pragmatism

James Madison

Philosophy of Systems

Archie BahmBehavioral PsychologyB.F. Skinner

PositivismJosef

Popper-Lynkeus

Mathematical LogicGottlob Frege

Measure TheoryGiuseppe Peano

Projective Geometry

Georg Cantor

Imperial HegemonyRoman Empire

GeneticsWilliam Bateson

Social CyberneticsGeoffrey Vickers

DemocracyCleisthenes

CuneiformSumerians

HieroglyphicsEgyptians

AlphabetPhoenicians

Regularized Language

Indo-Europeans

Democratic IdealismThomas Jefferson

Democratic DevelopmentPericles

AstronomyBabylon

Classical Biology

Wholistic BiologyBarry Commoner

Formalized Logic

Semio-PhysicsRené Thom

Group TheoryFelix Klein

LinearAnalysis

J. Fourier

Algorithmic Complexity

TheoryG. Chaitin

IdeographicsChinese

PictographicsAboriginals

FormalismDavid Hilbert

Linear AnalysisDirichlet

Social Systems Sciences

Field Theory

Evariste Galois

Algebraic FunctionsBernhard Riemann

Analytic GeometryPierre de Fermat

Analytic FunctionsLeonhard Euler

Analytic MechanicsJoseph-Louis

Lagrange

Imperial HegemonyNapoleon

Probability TheoryBlaise Pascal

AlgebraDiophantus

Social PsychologyWillis F. Overton

Mathematics of Concentric Spheres

Callippus

AstronomyEudoxus

GeometryTheudius

LawSolon

Conic SectionsApollonius

Atomic Weights

John Dalton

Inorganic Chemistry

Organic Chemistry

Liebig

Bio-TaxonomyCarolus Linnaeus

Gradual Geological Evolution

Charles Lyell

Geological Tectonics

SymmetryA. Zee

Manual Transcriptions

Monastic Scribes

PrintingJohannes Gutenberg

Observational AstronomyHipparchus

Geocentric Astronomy

Ptolemy

Polymath PhilosophyNicholas Oresme

QuaternionsWilliam Hamilton

InternetARPA

Telecommunications & Data BasesJames Martin

Apocalyptic Dualism

Zoroasterc.628-551BC

Numerical Analysis

Hypervisors

Emulation

Collateration & Hypertext Ted Nelson

World Wide WebTim Berners-Lee

Systemic Perspectivism

Experimental Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt

Psychological ModelingClark Hull

Clinical Psychology

Techno-Psychology

Psycho-Biology

Psycho-Physics

MorphogenesisD'Arcy

Thompson

Geo-Impact EvolutionEugene

Shoemaker

Mathematical Biology

A.J. Lotka

Eigenvalues & Superposition

Daniel Bernouli

Genetic Algorithms

Sturm- Louiville Theory

Systems Analysis

Perturbation Theory

Generalized Uncertainty

J. Ford

Documentary & Narrative

PhonemesRoman Jakobson

HieroglyphicsMayans

Social Anthropology

Bronislaw Malinowsky

IlluminationismSaint Augustine

Rational Voluntarism

John Duns Scotus

NominalismWilliam of Ockham

Logical NominalismJean Buridan

Interpretive Physics

B.J. West

Mechanical CalculatorWilhelm Schickard

ArithmometerCharles de Colmar

Tabulating MachineHerman Hollerith

Rapid Miniaturized Computing

Nanotechnology

Encoding Schemes

R.W. Hamming

Philosophy of Nature & Science

Carl von Weizsäcker

Bifurcated Cultures

C.P. Snow

Evolutionary SystematizationPierre Duhem

Pattern Recognition

Psycho-Metrics

Ecological Evolution

Ernst Haeckel

Molecular Genetics

Empirical Metaphysics

George Henry Lewes

Evolutionary Philosophy

Richard L. Coren

Comparative Psychology

C. Lloyd Morgan

Emergent ProcessSamuel Alexander

Linear AlgebraBenjamin Peirce

Algebra of LogicErnst Schröder

Associative AlgebrasWilliam Clifford

Statistical Biology

Karl Pearson

Modern Statistics

Jerzy Neyman

Statistical MechanicsJ. Willard

Gibbs

Model TheoryBernhard Bolzano

Model TheoryAlfred Tarski

Model TheoryMichael Morley

MetalogicAlonzo Church Metalogic

Kurt Gödel

IntuitionismL.E.J. Brouwer

Category Theory

Saunders Mac Lane

Double RefractionAugustin Fresnel

Metric Units

Astronomical Measurement

Pierre Mechain

Sociological Phenomenology

Max Scheler

Philosophy of History

Wilhelm Dilthey

Renaissance Platonism

Giovanni Pico

Number TheoryMarin Mersenne

Polymath PhysicsRobert Hooke

Industrial SociologyG. Elton Mayo

Philology, Linguistics & Grammar

EthnolinguisticsWilhelm von

Humboldt

EthnolinguisticsJohann Herder

EtymologyJacob Grimm

TagmemicsKenneth L. Pike

Stratificational Grammar

Sydney Lamb

GlossematicsLouis Hjelmslev

Morphology

HistoricismBenedetto Croce

ConceptualismErnst Cassirer

Tropology

Practical MedicineEgyptians

Colonial Hegemony

British Empire

Cultural Hegemony

USA

Moral PhilosophyFriedrich Schiller

OrganicismEdward Stuart Russell

Philosophy of BiologyMorton O.

Beckner

Number TheoryG.H. Hardy

PhilosophyArchelaus

PhilosophyAnaxagoras

Cognitive PsychologyAaron Beck

Structural LinguisticsN.S. Trubetzkoy

RealismG.E. Moore

Analytical Philosophy

Gilbert Ryle

SophismProtagoras

Game Theory

Automata Theory

Software MeasurementCapers Jones

Binary NumbersChina

Meta-languages & Linguistics

U. of Nalanda, India

AlgorithmsDonald Knuth

Structuralist Psychology

Edward Titchener

Gestalt Psychology

Max Wertheimer

New CriticismJohn Crowe

Ransom

ElementalismEmpedocles

Developmental Psychology

Cognitive Science

Allen Newell

Mechanistic MaterialismJulien La Mettrie

ComputationismJerry A. Fodor

Literary Criticism

I.A. Richards Standardized LinguisticsC.K. Ogden

Critical PhilologyDesiderius Erasmus

HumanismPetrarch

Cognitive Linguistics

George Lakoff & R.W. Langacker

Intensional Logic

Montague

Linguistic LogicJerrold J. Katz

Philosophy of Art and Language

Susanne K. Langer

Problem-Sovling

Propositional LogicChrysippus

Religious StoicismCleanthes

Diogenes of Babylon

Roman StoicismPanaetius

Roman StoicismPoseidonius

Roman StoicismSeneca

Tectonic Engineering

John Roebling

Industrial Design

CoherentismOtto Neurath

PERT

Delphi

Conditional Probability

Thomas Bayes

EnlightenmentJean d'Alembert

Ecology

EthologyKonrad Lorenz

Objective InformationT. Stonier

Biological Evolution

Jean Lamarck

VorticlesWilliam Thomson

SociobiologyEdward O. Wilson

SystematicsErnst Mayr

Interpersonal PsychologyR.D. Laing

Cybernetic Epistemology

Ranulph Glanville

Mathematical Economics

Antoine Cournot

Idealistic LiberalismWilliam Godwin

Mathematical PsychologyR.D. Luce

Neo-PlatonismPlotinus

Social PsychologyKurt Lewin

Gestalt PsychologyWolfgang

Köhler

Mathematical Economics

Vilfredo Pareto

Psycholinguistics

Sociolinguistics

Computational Linguistics

Linguistic PsychoanalysisJacques Lacan

Group Dynamic

Sociometrics

Political Sociology

Max Weber

EconometricsPhilosophy of

LawHans Kelsen

EugenicsFrancis

Primate AnthropologyJane Goodall

Primate Linguistics

Linguistic ScienceLeonard Bloomfield

Phonology

Physics As Metaphor

Roger S. Jones

Applied Transcendentalism

Henry David Thoreau

Instrumental Rationality

Peter Ramus

Methodized Encyclopedias

Johann Heinrich

Alsted

ConscientizationPaolo Freire

Robotics

Biodiversity

Urban Ecology

Louis Wirth

Biotechnology

Genetic Engineering

Green RevolutionNorman Borlaug

HeredityP-L. de Maupertuis

PsychoanalysisJosef Breuer