The Domain of Adaptive Systems: A Rudimentary Taxonomy
Abstract
Several divisions of contemporary inquiry-general systems analysis, cybernetics, the social and life sciences, and particularly the management sciences-are presently confronted with metascientific problems both conceptual and methodological in character. This situation is the result of a continuing drive toward comprehensiveness that has carried modern science beyond the limited scope of an earlier preoccupation with deterministic systems. However vaguely it may as yet have been conceived, a unifiable domain of adaptive systems appears to be emerging as the locus of a general convergence of the behavioral sciences on problems that generate a new order of theoretical difficulty. In this context a rudimentary taxonomy of adaptive systems is proposed as a means of structuring this area of research. Contrary to the usual supposition that the various behavioral sciences are concerned with quite disparate types of systems, this taxonomy presupposes a unitary format of organization and transformation derived on the basis of the concept of emergence.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0433934
Entities
People
- Milton C. Marney
- Nicholas M. Smith