This document provides an introduction to systems thinking and the system language. It discusses key concepts like reductionism, which sees systems as the sum of their parts, and holism, which recognizes that systems are more than the sum of their parts. It gives examples of fields that use holism like biology, where organisms resist reductionism. The document argues that the system language is powerful because it offers a corrective to reductionism, focuses on both structure and process, is interdisciplinary, and is useful for real-world management problems.

1. Syetematic Thinking 1:
The System Language
Dr Narudh Cheramakara
SSRU 2/2017

2. PART I of the course
• Background info needed to understand fully the different systems
approached
• Ch1: Introducing system languages and system ideas
• Ch2: development of applied systems thainking
• Ch3: The development of different systems in terms of willingness by
systems thinkiers to explore

3. The system language: intro
System: A complex whole of the functioning of which depends on its parts
and the interactions between those parts.
Different ways of identifying system types
- Physical, such as river systems
- Biological: Living organisms
- Designed: automobiles
- Abstract: Philosophical systems
- Social: Family
- Human activities: system to ensure quality of products

4. 1. Intro
• Reductionism:
- Traditional scientific method of studying systems
- It sees the parts as paramount and seeks to identify the parts,
understand the parts and work up from an understanding of the
parts to an understanding of the whole
- HOWEVER: The whole often seems to take on a form that is not
recognizable from the parts.
- Things are often more than the sum of their parts
- THIS RESULTS IN HOLISM

5. 1. Intro
• Holism, the alternative = systems to be more than sum of their parts
• It’s been used in many academic disclipines given that the
reductionism failed to cope with complexitiy, diversity and change in
complex systems.
• This can be seen in the following fields:

6. 2. Philosophy
• Aristotle established some important system ideas
- Aristotle: parts of the body only make sense in terms of the way they
function to support the whole organism

7. 3. Biology
• Biology is a complex science, it uses holism to explain various
phenomena.
• Whole organism seems to resist attempts of scientific reductionists to
reduce them to the sum of their parts
• That is why biologists argues that organisms are more than sums of
their parts
• Think of it this way, you can’t put different organs together and create
life

8. 4. Aviation Example: Hub and Spoke

9. 5 Why System language is powerful
• Holism offers a useful corrective to reductionism that still governs
much of management thinking
• System thinking puts on process as well as structure into thinking
• The Interdisciplinary nature of system thinking.
• System thinking is useful for the real-world management problem