Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Ludwig von Bertalanffy Quotes
49 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
The general notion in communication theory is that of information. In many cases, the flow of information corresponds to a flow of energy, e. g. if light waves emitted by some objects reach the eye or a photoelectric cell, elicit some reaction of the organism or some machinery, and thus convey information.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
If someone were to analyze current notions and fashionable catchwords, he would find "systems" high on the list. The concept has pervaded all fields of science and penetrated into popular thinking, jargon and mass media.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
It is an empirical rule that living, evolutionary, psychological, social, etc., systems tend toward increasing differentiation and organization.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
While we can conceive of a sum [or aggregate] as being composed gradually, a system as a total of parts with its [multiplicative] interrelations has to be conceived of as being composed instantly.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
What we call growth of even a simple organism is a tremendously complex phenomenon from the biochemical, physiological, cytological, and morphological viewpoints.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Animal growth can be considered as a result of a counteraction of synthesis and destruction, of the anabolism and catabolism of the building materials of the body. There will be growth so long as building up prevails over breaking down.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Progress is only possible by passing from a state of undifferentiated wholeness to differentiation of parts.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
We are seeking for another basic outlook - the world as organization. This would profoundly change the categories of our thinking and influence our practical attitudes. We must envision the biosphere as a whole with mutually reinforcing or mutually destructive interdependencies.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
The fact that a theory so vague, so insufficiently verifiable, and so far from the criteria otherwise applied in 'hard' science has become a dogma can only be explained on sociological grounds.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Conventional physics deals only with closed systems, i. e. systems which are considered to be isolated from their environment... However, we find systems which by their very nature and definition are not closed systems. Every living organism is essentially an open system. It maintains itself in a continuous inflow and outflow, a building up and breaking down of components, never being, so long as it is alive, in a state of chemical and thermodynamic equilibrium but maintained in a so-called steady state which is distinct from the latter.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Biologically, life is not maintenance or restoration of equilibrium but is essentially maintenance of disequilibria, as the doctrine of the organism as open system reveals. Reaching equilibrium means death and consequent decay. Psychologically, behaviour not only tends to release tensions but also builds up tensions; if this stops, the patient is a decaying mental corpse in the same way a living organism becomes a body in decay when tensions and forces keeping it from equilibrium have stopped.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Biological communities are systems of interacting components and thus display characteristic properties of systems, such as mutual interdependence, self-regulation, adaptation to disturbances, approach to states of equilibrium, etc.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
From the physical point of view the characteristic state of the living organism is that of an open system. A system is closed if no material enters or leaves it; it is open if there is import and export and, therefore, change of the components. Living systems are open systems, maintaining themselves in exchange of materials with environment, and in continuous building up and breaking down of their components.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
The system problem is essentially the problem of the limitation of analytical procedures in science. This used to be expressed by half-metaphysical statements, such as emergent evolution or 'the whole is more than the sum of its parts,' but has a clear operational meaning.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
General Systems Theory... possibly the model of the world as a great organization can help to reinforce the sense of reverence for the living which we have almost lost.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Our conception is that of a theory about the system in an inertial state... if the organism is a system in an inertial state, as our law expresses it, the metabolic processes generally have to follow the established system; the ever progressing findings must replace the general expression of 'a system in an inertial state' by a more and more detailed knowing about the nature of this system and its chemical, osmotic, fermentive system conditions.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
General systems theory (in the narrow sense of the term) is a discipline concerned with the general properties and laws of systems. A system is defined as a complex of components in interaction, or by some similar proposition. Systems theory tries to develop those principles that apply to systems in general, irrespective of the nature of the system, of their components, and of the relations or forces between them. The system components need not even be material, as, for example, in the system analysis of a commercial enterprise where components such as buildings, machines, personnel, money and good will of customers enter.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Science in the past (and partly in the present), was dominated by one-sided empiricism. Only a collection of data and experiments were considered as being 'scientific' in biology (and psychology); forgetting that a mere accumulation of data, although steadily piling up, does not make a science.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Source
Report...
Can civilizations and cultures be considered as systems? It seems, therefore, that a general theory of systems would be a useful tool providing, on the one hand, models that can be used in, and transferred different fields, and safeguarding, on the other hand, from vague analogies which often have marred the progress in these fields.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
1
2
Quote of the day
The United States form a young republic, a confederacy which ought ever to be cemented by a union of interests and affection, under the influence of those principles which obtained their independence.
Mercy Otis Warren
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Born:
September 19, 1901
Died:
June 12, 1972
(aged 70)
Bio:
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory.
Known for:
General system theory (1968)
Modern theories of development (1933)
Robots, men, and minds (1967)
A systems view of man
Most used words:
systems
science
theory
general
parts
life
organization
organism
living
components
elements
chemical
behavior
processes
equilibrium
Ludwig von Bertalanffy on Wikipedia
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Ludwig von Bertalanffy Quotes
Quotes about Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Canadian Philosopher Quotes
Philosopher Quotes
20th-century Philosopher Quotes
Related Authors
Norbert Wiener
American Mathematician
Kenneth Boulding
British Economist
W. Ross Ashby
British Psychiatrist
Russell L. Ackoff
American Scientist
Ervin László
Hungarian Philosopher
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes