This book contains the proceedings of the Sixth National Conference of
the Italian Systems Society. The title, Towards a post-Bertalanffy
Systemics, aims to underline the need for Systemics and Systems Science
to generalize theoretically concepts related to complexity (the great
enemy of Bertalanffy Systemics). Hopefully this goal should be
achieved by working in an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary
fashion, using systemic concepts arising from various disciplines and
from the original, or Bertalanffy Systemics, as well. The
interdisciplinary nature of the original Systemics and its power of
generalization were given, overall, by the fact that the problems and
solutions of one discipline become problems and solutions for another.
Today, the modeling and interpretation of multidisciplinary approaches
and representations makes easier to recognize these interconnections.
The context, however, has changed dramatically. Of course, the challenge
is still to find theoretical generalizations and applications, even
where we have a lot of specificities, but we know very little on how to
combine them. We cannot, however, simply replace the old with the new,
but we must introduce strategies to recognize, represent, model and act
on new levels, combining multiple representations, functions and
emergence. In many disciplines this has been already done, and
inevitably well, since targets and projects are well specified and
oriented. The challenge is to do it for Systemics, with the vocations of
cultural and theoretical generalization. Examples of new issues
introduced by such theoretical disciplinary improvements, dealt with by
many disciplines, include the study of mesoscopic or middle-way level,
of multiple and dynamic coherence, of equivalence/non-equivalence, of
fractality, of networks, of non-causality, of non-invasiveness, of
non-prescribability, of non-separability, of quasi properties, of
symmetry properties, of topological dynamics, as well as of quantum
theories and concepts.
The conference was devoted to identifying, discussing and understanding
possible interrelationships of theoretical disciplinary improvements,
recognized as having prospective fundamental roles for a new
post-Bertalanffy Systemics. The latter should be able to deal with
problems related to complexity in a generalized way. In this context
the inter-disciplinarity should consists, for instance, in a
disciplinary reformulation of problems, as from algebraic to
geometrical, from military to political, from biological to chemical,
while the trans-disciplinarity should be related to the study of such
reformulations and their properties.
The Italian Systems Society (AIRS) was founded in the 1996. The AIRS is
a network of academicians, scientists, researchers and professionals
involved in Systemics. A partial list of disciplines represented is:
Architecture
Biology
Economics
Education
Engineering
Mathematics
Neurosciences
Medicine
Music
Philosophy
Psychology
Physics.
Previous conferences had as open lecturers professors Arecchi, Haken,
Klir, and Kauffman. The proceedings have been published as:
1. Minati, G., (ed.), (1998), Proceedings of the first Italian
Conference on Systemics, Apogeo Scientifica, Milan, Italy.
2. Minati, G., and Pessa, E., (eds.) (2002), Emergence in Complex
Cognitive, Social and Biological Systems. Kluwer, New York.
3. Minati, G., Pessa, E., and Abram, M., (eds.), (2006), Systemics of
Emergence: Research and Applications. Springer, New York.
4. Minati, G., Abram, M. and Pessa, E., (eds.), (2009), Processes of
emergence of systems and systemic properties. Towards a general
