(1995-12-31) Purser On Defining Systems

Ron Purser: It is a pity that you quote the definition of a system from On Purposeful Systems. That was one of the things I had hoped to correct in our second, revised edition. This second edition never came to pass.

Russell Ackoff regarded OPS as a bible and wanted us to further formalize it. I though it was a temporary approximation in which we gone along with contemporary falsehoods in order to argue that there were purposeful systems beyond the goalseeking systems

To define a system as a set of elements and the relations between the elements is totally inadequate.

As Charles S. Peirce would say such formulations are still at the Newtonian level of interactions, SECONDS. (It is a pity that the boys at the Santa Fe Institute do not realize that they have locked themselves into this level).

A definition that encapsulates these principles might read as follows:

System: A set of entities that are interdependent with respect to the principle governing the set i.e. the system principle. The system principle is not sui generis to the set but defines a special relation of interdependence between the set and its environment.