Definition of Systems

A system, according to Webster's, is an assemblage of objects united by a regular interdependence or interaction of the parts. Deriving from the Greek and meaning "to place together," a system constitutes an organic or organized whole comprised of multiple sections. Examples of systems would be the solar system, the human nervous system, a curriculum system, an organizational system, or simply the Rolodex on your desk. Systems are built from interlocking parts, which are often in motion. Thus planets in star systems link with one another through moving gravity fields, organs in your body connect with one another through organic tissue and nerve impulses, and courses in a curriculum system connect with one another through cross-referencing and hyperlinks.

Systems thinking isn't new. Long before systems thinking came about in technology and organizations, there was systems thinking in theology, philosophy, medicine, and astronomy. In 400 B.C., the Greek physician Hippocrates described the human body as a system and in 350 B.C. Aristotle viewed all human knowledge as one vast hierarchical system. In A.D. 1200, the theologian Thomas Aquinas, building directly on Aristotle, turned systems thinking into a fine art with a vast system of scholastic philosophy mirroring the towering Gothic cathedrals of his time. And the Renaissance of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries produced the astronomical systems of Copernicus and Galileo. By the time of World War II, systems thinking had entered the realm of technology in the form of computerized anti-aircraft guns, and about the same time, had also started to define our thinking about organizations, with the sociotechni cal movement in England. In each and every case, the system was driven by the core vision of an assemblage of complex interlocking parts in motion.