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Outlines of a Theory of Justice as Rightness
A General Systems Approach
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
Extract
The origination of General Systems Theory is credited to Ludwig von Bertalanffy who, two years after receiving his doctorate from the University of Vienna, published a work in 1932 entitled Theorie der Formbildung. Despite, by his own account, an exposure to and familiarity with the positivism of the Vienna circle, von Bertalanffy was dissatisfied with the reductionist and atomistic forms of explanation which this group asserted is characteristic of scientific explanation. He was particularly unhappy with attempts to pattern explanations of biological phenomena after the model of classical Newtonian physics. In this early work, Models Theories of Development, von Bertalanffy maintained both that the main problem for biology is to discover patterns (laws) which are typical of biological systems and that the discovery of such patterns would produce a major change in the way the world is viewed in general. Von Bertalanffy worked out his proposed model for biological explanation in such subsequent books as Theoretische Biologie and Problems of Life and then in his later years in such works as Robots, Man and Minds and Organismic Psychology and Systems Theory, went on to apply his concepts in a cross-disciplinary way to psychology. Again, by his own account, at a somewhat later period, others, for example the economist Kenneth Boulding and the bio-mathematician A. Rapport, had arrived at, for parallel reasons, certain similar ideas relative to their own disciplines. These individuals together with others formed a joint enterprise which was to result in the interdisciplinary systems movement. Von Bertalanffy stressed the multi-dimension possibilities for fruitful research in a large number of conceptual areas, including the humanities, in his final major work, General Systems Theory Foundation, Development and Applications.
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- Copyright © 1983 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 Much of this material may be found in the introducton to The Relevance of General System Theory: Papers Presented to Ludwig von Bertalaffy on His Seventieth Birthday. Edited by Ervin Laszlo. New York, George Braziller, 1972, pp. 3-30.
2 Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory, Foundation, Developed Applications, New York, George Braziller, 1968, p. 13.
3 Ervin Laszlo, The Systems View of the World, New York, George Braziller, 1972, p. 20.
4 Von Bertalanffy, Ibid., p. 11.
5 John Rawls, "Justice as Fairness," in The Philosophic Review, Vol. 67, 1958.
6 See for example, The Nichomachean Ethics, translated by W.D. Ross, from the Oxford Press translation of Aristotle edited by W.D. Ross, Vol. 7, 1925.
7 Ibid.
8 e.g. war, revolution.
9 Plato The Republic, Book I, Chapter II (1-331-E336A). Translated by F.M. Cornford, London, Oxford University Press, 1945.
10 Ibid., Ch. II (1-331-E336A).
11 Ibid., Ch. II (1-331-E336A).
12 There is a difficulty here in knowing exactly what Plato believed about pun ishment. For while in The Republic the examples seem to indicate that painful correction ought to be eschewed, his discussion on punishment in the Laws appears to indicate that in a less than ideal state when all else fails penalties such as fines, loss of civil rights and even death may be appropriate. This, however, is only to be undertaken when all else fails—the "lesser" evil, it may be supposed.
13 Aristotle attempts to deal with this aspect of the problem by arguing that in the instance of rewards and burdens the distribution is to be according to quantity but also according to proportion, e.g. 6:4 as 3:2. Op. cit., Nichomachean Ethics Book V. Of course, this does not, as the ancients were well aware, tell by what principles individual worth is to be decided nor does it tell us the basis for any given geometrical proportionality; why, for example, A should get 1½ times as much as B, if 6 and 4 are taken to be the rewards and 3:2 respective worth, or even if distribution should take place according to a geo metric equality at all.
14 J.I. Kramer and Smit, Systems Thinking, Lernen Nijhoff, 1977.
15 I bid.
16 The "guardian" class as a group is another means which Plato proposes as a way of promoting social stability. The exercise is "a negative feedback" controlling function.
17 Op. cit., The Republic, Ch. XII, IV, (427C-434D).
18 Ibid., Ch. X, (III 412B-421C).19 Ibid., Ch. XII (IV 427C-434D).