p.3 There is an emerging paradigm - a new way of ordering the information
we already have and are likely to get in the foreseeable future. Let us turn now to a consideration of this new way
of looking at the world, and the reasons why it is preferable to the atomistic method of compartmentalized specialization.
p.4 Instead of looking at one thing at a time, and noting its behavior
when exposed to one other thing, the sciences now look at a number of different and interacting things and note their
behavior as a whole under diverse influences.
p.9 while they exist, regardless of how long, each system has a specific structure made up of certain
maintained relationships among its parts, and it manifests irreducible characteristics of its own. If we
want to know more about them we have to treat them as systems.
p.9 Science, then, must beware of rejecting the complexity of structure for the
sake of the theory's simplicity
p.9-10 The specialists concentrate on detail and disregard the wider structure which gives it context. The
systems scientists, on the other hand, concentrate on structure on all levels of magnitude and complexity,
and fit detail into its general framework. They discern relationships and situations, not atomistic facts and events.
By this method they can understand a lot more about a great many more things than the rigorous specialists,
although their understanding is more general and approximate... to have an adequate grasp of reality we must look
at things as systems, with properties and structures of their own.
p.29 what makes a group what it is, is not just its
membership, but the mutual relations of the members.
p.35 Of course, drastic changes in the environment may be
beyond the adaptive capacity of any organism.
p.35 The highly developed organism regulates its own internal environment,
much as a thermostat regulates the temperature of a house. For this it requires reliable information concerning conditions
in its surroundings.
p.35 If conditions change perniciously, the organism can take steps
to protect itself... The more delicate organisms require advance warning of threatening conditions and the skill to
interpret the relevant sense signals. They must be able to predict to some extent what is likely to happen (as a
rabbit can predict that he is likely to be attacked when he smells a fox), and see about taking preventive measures.
We humans, more than any other organism, have greatly refined such
predictive and interpretive skills.
p.36 Humans can now take care of all their survival needs
by using their predictive and manipulative capacities.
The living organism keeps itself in running condition as long
as it can, and performs repairs if it gets damaged... The state maintained in and by organisms ... is a dynamic balance
of energies and substances, always poised for action... The remarkable feature of the organism is that,
unlike a watch, it keeps itself wound up
p.53 There are strains and stresses in this world
which traverse the globe and tax the adaptive capacities of the individual, creating what Toffler
calls future shock.
p.58 A holarchically* (rather than hierarchically) integrated
system is not a passive system, committed to the status quo. It is a dynamic and adaptive entity, reflecting in its
own functioning the patterns of change over all levels of the system. [ * JLJ - A holarchy, in the terminology of
Arthur Koestler, is a hierarchy of holons – where a holon is both a part and a whole. The term was coined in Koestler's
1967 book The Ghost in the Machine. The term, spelled holoarchy, is also used extensively by American philosopher
and writer Ken Wilber.]
p.58 There is freedom of choosing one's paths of progress,
yet this freedom is bounded by the limits of compatibility with the dynamic structure of the whole in which one finds oneself.
p.78 One cannot see values, nor can one hear, touch, taste, or smell them... Values are goals which
behavior strives to realize.
p.80 If we survey the conclusions [of contemporary cultural anthropologists, concerning fundamental universal
values] that emerge from these findings, we find that our objective basic values are those which we share with all
natural systems. Each of us "must" (in the sense that he or she cannot help but) commit himself to survival,
creativity, and mutual adaptation within a society of his peers... there is no imperative attached to the cultural
specification of these values. These we can choose according to our insights.
p.82, 86 Fulfillment means the realization of human
potentials for existence as a biological and a socio-cultural being. It
means bodily, as well as mental health. It means adaptation to the environment...
Fulfillment also means acting on the environment... and making it compatible with the expression
of one's potentials. It calls for a dynamic process of integration and adjustment, creating
conditions for the actualization of the full potential there is in each of us... Fulfillment is predicated
upon the freedom to become what one is capable of being... Such freedom is a real possibility, although at present
it is nowhere fully realized.
p.83 It is impossible, however, to specify norms for every situation in theory. Such can only be the task
of applying the theory, with due regard to the specifics of the situation.
p.83 In the world of organized complexity the arrow of time does not determine which pathway is
taken by individual systems, only in what direction their paths converge.
p.85, 86 Sociocultural systems have openings for certain kinds of roles...
Roles are not made for given individuals, but for kinds of individuals classed according to qualification... It
is due to such plasticity that complex systems remain viable under changing circumstances.
p.86 Systemicity is imposed as a set of rules binding the parts among themselves... The
parts have options: as long as a sufficient number of sufficiently qualified units carries out the prescribed tasks, the requirements
of systemic determination are met.
p.88 We need both the readings and the norms. For only if we know both where we are and
where we want to go can we act purposefully in seeing about getting there.
p.92 The supreme challenge of our age is to specify,
and learn to respect, the objective norms of existence within the complex and delicately balanced holarchic
order that is both in us and around us. There is no other way to make sure that we achieve a culture that
is both viable and humanistic.
