| Core Concept |
| The study of the abstract organisation of phenomena.
A holist rather than a reductionist perspective of systems, i.e. the sum of the parts is greater than the parts added together (2+2=5). |
| levels |
| Levels are sub-systems nested within other systems.
Levels are differentiated: each has an expert function.
Considering a system at a particular level of abstraction is a fundamental mental process (aka chunking) |
| hierarchy |
| A collection of levels ordered by their inherent complexity.
Effects propagate through a hierarchy through adjacent levels. |
| strange loops |
| A tangled hierarchy, where by moving up/down through levels of a hierarchy we unexpectedly find ourselves back where we started.
Finding this paradox tends to suggest the system is not a hierarchy at all, but a heterarchy. |
|
|
| heterarchy |
| An unordered collection of levels, with no root, and no presumed distinctions of complexity.
In a heterarchy self-references (strange loops) are not paradoxes, but essential to its recursive nature. |
|
|
| boundaries |
| The limits of a system's processes are defined by its boundary.
The boundary does not define the limits of a system's influence, but acts as filter for incoming and outgoing effects.
Inpenetrable boundaries are impossible, all systems are open. |
| phase space |
| The area inside a boundary: the dynamic internal state of a system.
Can be visualised as a Poincaré diagram showing the space of all possible circumstances with attractors and repellers.
Within this space feedback causes a periodic cycle (rhythm) to develop. |
|
|
| emergence |
| An epiphenomenon, properties appear as a consequence of the underlying organisation of a system. |
| simplexity |
| Cohen & Stewart's term for the emergence of simple features as a direct (though possibly highly intricate) consequence of a system of rules.
Example: the ideal gas law
|
|
|
| convergence |
| The process by which processes from different systems combine to form new features. |
| complicity |
| Cohen & Stewart's term for how systems can change each other, characterised by similar features occuring in unrelated systems with very different rules.
Example: parasitism, a convergence in the resource/consumer space, found in biology, economics and sociology. |
|
|
|
