System theory for architects https://bit.ly/2yXGImr	Philosophy
“The most important work on EA and applied System Theory today.” “Makes EA more powerful, coherent and usable.” “I read and regularly refer… way beyond any other EA/system engineering/human factors/systems theory resource.” “I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your musings on systems… exceptionally useful”.	Descriptions <create and use> <symbolise> Describers <observe & envisage> Realities
Blurb Preface Comments Tutorial in London Saturday March 2^nd 2019	Home page

Introduction	1 The science & philosophy of systems 2 Thinkers before systems thinking 3 System thinkers & their ideas 4 System thinking approaches 5 Social networks versus systems 6 System stability & change 7 Systems thinking: science or poetry?	Idealisation in system theory Abstraction from “the real machine” Abstraction in the eternal golden braid Abstraction varieties and typology
Cybernetics and System Dynamics	8 Cybernetics	9 System Dynamics
	Ashby’s ideas Beer’s ideas Ashby on cybernetics Information feedback loops	Relativity v quantum mechanics Discrete event-driven systems (DEDS) Continuous System Dynamics Converting discrete to continuous
General System Theory	10 General system theory	More obscure system properties	More about systems	Older GST musing
	System properties More system ideas Holism and emergent properties Encapsulation The primacy of behavior Determinism and hysteresis	Complexity Goal-directedness Hierarchical (v network) organisation Chaos and non-linear behaviour Predictability and probability Agility	The elements of systems Primacy of external and behavioural views Terms and concepts in system description The anatomy of the reference model Formalising system description	System state: entities and identities Homeostasis and control Hierarchies and lattices. ISO 42010 in a nutshell What ISO 42010 means ISO change proposal
Soft Systems	11 Soft systems thinking	Challenging systems thinkers	System and people types	The schism
	Boulding’s view of systems Snowden’s Cynefin framework Bausch’s view of systems thinking	Marx and Engels ideas Maturana’s ideas Luhmann’s ideas Ackoff’s ideas More sociological perspectives	Ackoff’s system classes System types People types	The schism in systems thinking EA, GST and social system thinking Social entities v. social systems Actors, roles and assignments
Enterprise Architecture	12 Enterprises as systems	Business system models	More musings	Older musings
	Premises of EA and TOGAF EA as applied system theory EA as applied systems thinking EA and philosophy Abstraction in TOGAF and Zachman	Business system modelling premises Business architecture as systems Business capabilities as social systems EA in the system theory space EA as applied system theory Quality systems Error! Bookmark not defined.	Architects, descriptions and systems Architectural descriptions of systems EA as multi-level architecture description The practical terminology challenge Enterprise state data Modelling madness.	Functionality and Logicality Granularity and Modularity Composition and Generalisation Systems as abstractions UML types and instances Modelling the passage of time
Description and Reality	13 Description theory	Musings	More musing	Older type theory musings
	Description Communication Information Language, logic and data Fuzzy types and fuzzy instantiation	Mental models and how brains work The magic number seven Other information theories Taxonomies and ontologies The evolution of description	Insights from description theory The psychology of description The philosophy of description Principles for a controlled vocabulary Data and reality – after Bill Kent	The evolution of types Set and type theory Types in different disciplines How things instantiate types Types and instances Types and meta types Types and instances – analysis
Philosophy	14 System philosophy	Philosophical musings	More philosophical musings	Glossary and references
	Types and tokens Other triangular philosophies. Knowledge and truth Realism or Idealism?	The problem of universals Description and reality The 9 propositions of scientific idealism Insights from the idealism triangle System theory as scientific idealism Philosophical position statement Existence in space and time	Philosophical dichotomies Ontology and phenomenology Logical positivism (Wittgenstein) About life Relevance of the above to EA	Glossary System theory terminology System theory ontology References More references Types and sets references Laszlo and Krippner references

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