No comments about Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Theory of Fuzzy Decisions: Identification and Measurement Theory (Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing).

No comments about Systems for All.

No comments about Advances In Self-Organizing Systems (Quantitative Methods in Communication).

No comments about Emergence and Convergence: Qualitative Novelty and the Unity of Knowledge (Toronto Studies in Philosophy).

1 comments about Mistake Earth Science: Expanding Earth Versus Plate Tectonics: Primeval Times Happened Yesterday.

1. After the German best selling book Darwins Irrtum (Darwin's Mistake) this new book contradicting the scientific doctrines of evolution and geology over all. The author uses logic to systematically demolish every one of Darwin's and Earth Science Theories and backs up by science and history. Hans Zillmer gives evidence of major earth catastrophes happened only some thousand years ago and gives undeniable evidence of a expanding earth instead of plate tectonic. Furthermore there are some interesting ideas of electrical gravitation and universe.
   Darwin's Mistake: Antediluvian Discoveries Prove Dinosaurs and Humans Co-Existed

1 comments about Thinking Through Systems Thinking.

1. X and Y are necessary for Z;
   X does not yield Z;
   Y does not yield Z;
   and, crucially, X + Y does not yield Z.
   Yet Z results from X and Y.
   What is Z?
   This is the riddle whose solution System Theory was born to provide.
   
   Systemicity is receiving wider attention due to its evident paradox. On the one hand, it occurs as a problem with complex symptoms. On the other, it is sought after as an approach for dealing with the non-linear reality of the world. At once problem and prize, systemicity continues to confound. This book details the mechanics of this paradox as they arise from human epistemological engagement with the world.
   
   Guided by an original analysis of the fundamental idea of emergent property, Thinking Through Systems Thinking uncovers the distinct significance, but also incompleteness, of the systems approach as a theory of human epistemological engagement. The incompleteness is treated through a non-eclectic interdisciplinary investigation which meets ten distinctly developed criteria required of any potential interdisciplinary partner to systems thinking. There results a theory of knowledge - an epistemology - which is systemic in both senses of the term: it belongs to the general systems movement, and it is systemically structured. The systems movement is thus offered a distinct epistemological voice which can compete on equal ground with other philosophical/epistemological positions. In true systemic fashion, this theory of knowledge also offers methodological, ethical, and existential implications.
   
   The book provides:
   
   - an in-depth explication of the fundamental importance of the idea of emergent property to system science;
   - a detailed analysis of the relationship between emergent properties and the wholes which exhibit them;
   - the first complete systems science epistemology built upon the idea of emergent property;
   - epistemological insights into some of the core ideas of systems science such as emergent property and boundary critique - indeed, the book's treatment of the former idea is unique in the system science literature and provides an advanced epistemological understanding of this idea;
   - the first developed system theoretical understanding of consciousness, hence contributing to studies of consciousness in general and, moreover, to the understanding of the manner in which human beings engage epistemologically with the world;
   - a fresh, and distinctly epistemological, understanding of von Bertalanffy's pioneering general system theory - an understanding which has served to also demonstrate the continuing relevance of the original ideas behind the contemporary face of systems science, and the manner in which such ideas sit well with phenomenology;
   - a systemic understanding of two cornerstones of Husserlian phenomenology: intentionality and intuition;
   - an introduction, detailed treatment, and delimitation of the epistemological ideas of dogmatism and bounded rationality;
   - an original, epistemologically-focused critique of the idea of boundary analysis/boundary judgements;
   - an original, epistemological treatment of the idea of alienation, further demonstrated as permeating systems science and phenomenology; and,
   - an application for the development of organizational learning and knowledge management.
   
   
   In the Preface, the author writes:
   
   In 1929, Emmanuel Levinas wrote of meeting a German student on the Berlin-Basel express heading for Freiburg: `When asked where he was going, he answered without batting an eye: "I am going to the home of the greatest philosopher in the world".' This sounds almost quaint in today's world where the mass production and mass marketing of education promote an impersonal choice of university and even course of study. At the most one goes (or aspires to go) to a particular university due to its institutional fame; less so do we hear from a student that the choice was based on the fame of particular faculty members. I was lucky to have experienced something like the German student's fortune. I was accepted at a prestigious university, and my choice was reinforced by a desire to study under one particular faculty member. The initial awe of the first lecture was soon replaced with something permanent: a lifelong motivation which propels one to continue to learn, to write, to exchange the most tangible human product of them all: ideas.
   
   I studied what is, for some, an apparently much less known, if not even less royal, subject than the queen of the sciences. I came to discover, however, that philosophy penetrated everything that I read. My studies were intensively concerned with human behaviour, with human choices, with human motives and consequences, and most of all with the uncertainty which human beings generate for themselves. Yet, there seemed to be a greater tendency to control these human issues within a mathematical paradigm than any real attempt to deal with them in accordance with their all too human dimensions. Although initially attracted to the former paradigm, I increasingly felt pulled to pay attention to what was missing in such reductionist ways. In my own field, I kept encountering attempts to forge a new understanding based on philosophy and the social sciences. At the time I regarded such attempts as strewn with eclecticism. In retrospect, I regret the force of this summary judgement, though not its substance, for I have come to appreciate how difficult it really is to develop, justify and defend each and every corner of an interdisciplinary argument. All I knew for certain was that I wanted to be part of this game, I wanted to learn its rules and forge new ones, and most of all I wanted to contribute. My choice was not to rely on the philosophers which had been so far applied, in whatever manner, to my field. And if I had, for some reason, to incorporate them, I was not to rely on my own field's interpretations of them. I was, in a sense, to start from square one.
   
   Square one appeared in unexpected form, although it opened the door to everything which followed: the essays of James Baldwin collected under the title Nobody Knows My Name. It would take a whole book to trace the distinct, yet interconnected, conceptual developments which followed and which grew exponentially in my mind. Basically, I journeyed into system theory, becoming acquainted with such key thinkers as Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Peter Checkland, and Robert Flood. I soon discovered, however, that key contributions were available from particular philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas and, most significantly, Edmund Husserl. For those already familiar with thinkers such as these, the absence of Martin Heidegger appears striking. For them also, the inclusion of thinkers such as these in a book on systems thinking may appear surprising. Both of the questions will, of course, be answered in the pages which follow.
   
   Of these thinkers, Sartre appeared to me as the most dynamic and the most encouraging. Reading Sartre was exciting and I was convinced that I had found a potentially profound synthesis between systems thinking and phenomenological philosophy. The more I read Sartre, however, and no less due to his genius, the more I felt Husserl tugging at my sleeve. And this was very worrying. Where Sartre's eloquence illuminated the essence of what I wanted to contribute, Husserl wrote philosophy as a `rigorous science'. Reading Husserl, in other words, was much more challenging, requiring much greater expenditures of effort for each marginal gain in understanding. It was my earlier training in advanced engineering mathematics which, I appreciated much later, proved invaluable in preparing me to mentally face Husserl. And, ultimately, it was Husserl who trained me in disciplined, careful analysis of concepts and ideas.
   
   This book is certainly about system theory, and especially about how it informs systems thinking. It is also, however, the product of Husserlian discipline, whose seed was sown by a renowned lyrical essayist, and of the writers I read in between. To them I am indebted, as is all of humanity. At times we hesitate to appreciate their greatness and, perhaps because we fear the effort they demand of us, we allow ourselves to be fascinated by their faults for too long.
   
   
   The structure of the book is as follows:
   
   PART ONE: CONTEXTUAL INVESTIGATIONS
   
   CHAPTER ONE - WAR
   1. THE HOLISTIC/SYSTEMIC APPROACH
   2. BLAME DYNAMICS
   3. THE IDEA OF FEEDBACK
   4. `WE HAVE THE WAR WE DESERVE'
   5. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER TWO - DUALISMS
   1. THE SETTING OF SCHOLARLY THOUGHT
   1.1 Geometrical Thought
   1.2 Flat Thought
   2. EPISTEMOLOGY
   3. DRIVING UP A ONE-WAY STREET
   3.1 Knowledge in the Contemporary Context
   3.2 Philosophy's View on Consciousness
   4. SYSTEM THEORETICAL VERSUS SYSTEMIC
   5. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER THREE - QUESTIONS
   1. AN OUTLINE OF SYSTEM THEORY
   1.1 Beginnings
   1.2 Soft Systems Thinking
   1.3 Critical Systems Thinking
   2. EPISTEMOLOGICAL THEORIZING IN SYSTEM THEORY
   3. THE FORGOTTEN EPISTEMOLOGICAL AGENDA OF SYSTEM THEORY
   4. CONCLUSION
   
   
   PART TWO: SYSTEM THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS
   
   CHAPTER FOUR - EMERGENCE
   1. THE BERTALANFFYAN UNDERSTANDING OF THE IDEA OF EMERGENT PROPERTY
   2. EMERGENT PROPERTY UNDERSTOOD AS UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCE
   3. EMERGENT PROPERTY UNDERSTOOD AS REFERENCE POINT
   4. SUMMARY OF THE IDEA OF EMERGENT PROPERTY AS UNDERSTOOD IN SYSTEM THEORY
   5. SYSTEM THEORY'S PRELIMINARY UNDERSTANDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS
   6. TWO REQUIRED IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATIONS
   7. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER FIVE - EMERGENT PROPERTIES AND COMPLEXES
   1. THE TRANSCENDENTAL ABILITY OF RELATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
   2. THE RELATIONAL CHARACTERISTIC AS DEPENDENT UPON COMPLEXES
   3. COMPLEXES AS DEPENDENT UPON THE RELATIONAL CHARACTERISTIC
   4. THE SYSTEMIC GOVERNANCE
   5. A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SYSTEMIC GOVERNANCE
   6. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER SIX - JUSTIFICATION
   1. PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE WORK OF VON BERTALANFFY
   2. THE PROJECT OF GENERAL SYSTEM THEORY
   3. THE FOREMOST OBJECT OF INTEREST OF GENERAL SYSTEM THEORY
   4. THE NATURE OF BERTALANFFYAN PRINCIPLES
   5. CONTINUAL JUSTIFICATION
   6. THE WAY TOWARD PHENOMENOLOGY
   7. CONCLUSION
   
   
   PART THREE: PHENOMENOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
   
   CHAPTER SEVEN - PERCEPTION AND INTENTION
   1. APPEARANCES
   2. INTRODUCTORY NOTES TO THE THEORY OF INTENTIONALITY
   2.1 An Analogy: Hearing and Listening
   2.2 Perceiving and Intending
   3. OBJECTIVE PHENOMENA AND INTENDED PHENOMENA
   4. THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL SYSTEMICITY BETWEEN PERCEPTION AND INTENTION
   5. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER EIGHT - EMERGENT PROPERTIES AND IDENTITIES
   1. THE DYNAMICS OF PERCEPTION OF APPEARANCES: THE CUBE EXAMPLE
   2. THE INTENTION OF IDENTITIES
   3. SUMMARY OF IDENTITY AS UNDERSTOOD IN PHENOMENOLOGY
   3.1 Reflections of the Bertalanffyan Understanding of Emergent Property
   3.2 Reflections of the Relational and Referential Understanding of Emergent Property
   3.3 Reflections of the Epistemological Understanding of Emergent Property
   4. SYSTEM THEORETICAL EMERGENT PROPERTIES AS PHENOMENOLOGICAL IDENTITIES
   5. TWO ADDITIONAL ASPECTS OF EMERGENT PROPERTIES
   6. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER NINE - INTENTIONALITY
   1. INTENTIONALITY: THE CLASSIC DESCRIPTION
   2. CLARIFYING THE CLASSIC DESCRIPTION
   3. THE EIDETIC INCLINATION OF INTENTIONALITY
   4. THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL ACTUALIZER OF INTENTIONALITY
   5. CONCLUSION
   
   
   PART FOUR: SYSTEMIC EPISTEMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
   
   CHAPTER TEN - INTUITION
   1. THE DUAL STRUCTURE OF INTUITION
   1.1 Continuity/and so forth: The Intuitive Mode of Development
   1.2 Repetition/one can always again: The Intuitive Mode of Repetition
   2. CONTINUITY AND REPETITION IN A BERTALANFFYAN CONTEXT
   2.1 The Inductive Nature of the Intuitive Mode of Repetition
   3. A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF INTUITION'S TWO MODES
   3.1 The Mode of Development: Intention Intuiting
   3.2 The Mode of Repetition: Intuition Intending
   3.3 The Mutual Exclusiveness of Intuition's Two Modes
   3.4 Intuition's Two Modes: Both/And, Either/Or
   4. DOGMATISM: THE MODE OF REPETITION OF INTUITIONS
   5. BOUNDED RATIONALITY: THE MODE OF DEVELOPMENT OF INTUITIONS
   6. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER ELEVEN - DOGMATISM AND BOUNDED RATIONALITY
   1. EXPLORING DOGMATISM AND BOUNDED RATIONALITY
   2. THE PRIMACY OF SYSTEMICITY
   2.1 The Sartrean Dialectic
   3. CONSCIOUSNESS' CHOICE
   3.1 The Self-Justification of Consciousness' Choice
   3.2 The Self-Responsibility Of Consciousness' Choice
   4. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER TWELVE - A SYSTEMIC EPISTEMOLOGY
   1. CRITICAL PRESENTATION OF THE THEORY OF BOUNDARY JUDGEMENTS
   2. RECONSIDERING THE PRESENTATION
   3. RESULTS OF THE PRESENTATION
   4. A SYSTEMIC EPISTEMOLOGY FOR SYSTEM THEORY
   5. CONCLUSION
   
   
   PART FIVE: APPLIED INVESTIGATIONS
   
   CHAPTER THIRTEEN - ALIENATION
   1. THE PROPOSAL TO GROUND SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY WITHIN AN APPROPRIATE SOCIAL THEORY
   1.1 The Basis of the Proposal
   2. THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE IN THE HABERMASIAN INCORPORATION
   3. THE STRONG CASE FOR EPISTEMOLOGICAL ALIENATION
   4. SPECIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO SYSTEM THEORY'S EMBRACE OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL ALIENATION
   4.1 Unconscious Forces
   4.2 Ideal Speech Situation
   5. THE SYSTEMIC EPISTEMOLOGY AS FUNDAMENTAL CONTRIBUTOR
   6. THREE BASIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO SYSTEM THEORY
   7. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER FOURTEEN - METHODOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
   1. THE BASIC CRITICAL PRACTICE
   2. THE SYSTEMIC EPISTEMOLOGY AND SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY
   3. THE SYSTEMIC EPISTEMOLOGY AND BOUNDARY JUDGEMENTS
   4. CONCLUSION
   
   CHAPTER FIFTEEN - AN APPLICATION IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING THEORY
   1. ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
   2. SYSTEM THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
   3. EPISTEMOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
   4. POINTERS TOWARD THE RELEVANCE OF THE SYSTEMIC EPISTEMOLOGY TO ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
   5. TOWARD THE OPERATIONALIZATION OF THE PRESENT INVESTIGATIONS IN THE FIELD OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
   6. FRAMEWORK OF PROPOSED FUTURE RESEARCH IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
   7. CONCLUSION
   
   
   CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS
   
   CHAPTER SIXTEEN - INTERDISCIPLINARY PARTNERSHIP: PRESENT RESULTS AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS
   1. MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS
   2. THE WARS WE DESERVE
   3. ON THE INHERENT INTERDISCIPLINARITY BETWEEN SYSTEM THEORY AND PHENOMENOLOGY
   3.1 Reservations Regarding a Chronological Approach to Phenomenology
   3.2 The Case for Sartrean Phenomenology as the Fundamental Interdisciplinary Partner to System Theory
   4. CONCLUSION
   BIBLIOGRAPHY
   
   
   LIST OF TABLES
   
   Table 1.1 Some key points of the holistic approach
   Table 2.1 System theoretical vs. Systemic
   Table 3.1 The forgotten epistemological agenda of system theory
   Table 4.1 Twelve aspects of emergent properties as given in the system theory literature
   Table 6.1 Criteria required of any potential interdisciplinary partner to system theory
   Table 7.1 Aspects of hearing and of listening
   Table 7.2 Aspects of perceiving and of intending
   Table 8.1 Comparison between system theoretical emergent property and phenomenological identity
   Table 8.2 Two additional aspects of emergent properties with comments
   Table 10.1 Characterizations of each intuitive mode qua epistemological actualization of an intention
   Table 11.1 Fundamental understanding of critique required of System Theory
   Table 12.1 Epistemological conclusions from the foundational arguments of the theory of boundary judgements
   Table 12.2 Set of modal similarities between System Theory and phenomenology
   Table 12.3 Elements of an epistemology particular to System Theory
   Table 12.4 The division of the moments of the systemic epistemology into activities and conditions
   
   
   LIST OF FIGURES
   
   Figure 1.1 Linear causation and systemic feedback
   Figure 1.2 Water flowing into a glass
   Figure 1.3 Negative feedback loop
   Figure 1.4 Arms in country B influenced by perceived arms in country A
   Figure 1.5 Positive feedback loop
   Figure 8.1 Preliminary observations on perceiving a cube
   Figure 8.2 Layers of perception - sides
   Figure 8.3 Layers of perception - aspects
   Figure 8.4 The perception of a cube
   Figure 12.1 A map of the relational arrangements of the moments of the systemic epistemology
   Figure 15.1 Intending-intuiting-learning matrix
   Figure 15.2 Framework of proposed future research in organizational learning

No comments about Knowledge and Ignorance: Essays on Lights and Shadows.

No comments about Nonlinear Noninteger Order Systems: Theory and Applications.

1 comments about From Biology to Sociopolitics: Conceptual Continuity in Complex Systems.

1. Carefully written and well documented, FROM BIOLOGY TO SOCIOPOLITICS by Heinz Herrmann is a remarkable work. Herrmann has studied the processes by which we humans handle the complexity and chaos of natural systems in the decision-making process whether in our sociopolitical behavior or in our quest for scientific truth. Science is as dependent on a commonly recognized conceptual construct as it is on a recognized vocabulary or classification system. Without vocabulary we could not communicate and without a conceptual construct we could not reason. Herrmann proposes a new paradigm for science and society -- conceptual continuity. Conceptual continuity provides a construct for the intellectual encapsulation of conplex or chaotic observations within the precepts of science enabling its orderly progress without the need for rejection of phenomena whose causes are unknowable or whose processes are complex. Herrmann's articulation of that paradigm is remarkable enough for the sciences alone but even more remarkable is his generalization of "conceptual continuity" to the realm of sociopolitics. In hindsight the generalization seems simple and natural but most great ideas do.

   The treatment presented in the work is especially significant because it is accomplished through the direct application of careful logical thinking and not flung out of a computer as reworked information, so common in this electronically driven information age. The work is a tribute to the human mind and an example of the advantage that the wise ones, the sapiens, still hold over the flawless memories of the electronic ones -- an exquisite example of the ability of the human intellect to raise information to the level of knowledge and, through careful generalization, to elevate knowledge to the level of wisdom. The human triumphs through perfert , selective "forgetting" rather than through perfect memory. Wisdom is achieved through careful documentation, analysis and generalization rather than through flawless recapitulation. Ultimately society and science will be moved more by wisdom than by information. FROM BIOLOGY TO SOCIOPOLITICS is a clear articulation of a remarkable insight by a truly wise man and it is one of the most thought provoking works I have had the pleasure to read.

   I read FROM BIOLOGY TO SOCIOPOLITICS on the heals of reading some works by Amartya Sen who wrote extensively on the role of "entitlement" as the social glue derived from government and creating a mutual need for induvidual success at all social levels. Sen was impressed with the lack of famine in democratic societies and his perception of of mutual needs or entitlements in those societies was a remarkable insight. It won the Nobel Prize. Herrmann's insight strikes me as no less remarkable.

2 comments about Cryptanalysis of Number Theoretic Ciphers (Computational Mathematics).

1. An excellent book. I am a beginning cryptographer with some statistics, discrete math, user level crypto and programming under my belt - crossing over from another field. This book is an excellent read with proper amounts of examples and theorems. It is easy to follow and would make a good reference.



2. I read the book and is almost self contained. No knowledge in Number Theory is assumed. Has a great combination of text and math. Last few chapters could have been better.