On Purposeful Systems: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Individual and Social Behavior as a System of Purposeful Events

307 Pages·2017·16.2 MB·English

by  Russell L. Ackoff

On
Purposeful
Systems

nO
Purposeful
Systems
nA Interdisciplinary
Analysis of
Individual and
Social Behavior
as a System of
Purposeful Events
llessuR .L ffokcA
derF .E yremE
With a new introduction 1,1b Brent .D Auben
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LONDON AND NEW KRDY
First published 2006 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright @ 2006 by Taylor & Francis.
Copyright @ 1972 by Russell L. Ackoff and Fred E. Emery.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2005054854
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ackoff, Russell Lincoln, 1919
On purposeful systems: an interdisciplinary analysis of individual and
social behavior as a system of purposeful events / Russell L. Ackoff & Fred
E.Emery; with a new introduction by Brent D. Ruben.
p.cm.
Originally published: London: Tavistock Publications, 1972.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-202-30798-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1.Social sciences—Methodology. 2. Social systems. I. Emery, F. E.
(Frederick Edmund) II. Title.
H61.A38 2006
302.3-dc22 2005054854
ISBN 13: 978-0-202-30798-5 (pbk)
To E. A. Singer, Jr., Thomas A. Cowan, and
C. West Churchman, who gave us the material
to work with.

Contents
AldineTransaction Introduction ix
Preface xiii
I. Foundations
1. On Human Behavior as a System 3
2. Structure, Function, and Purpose 13
3. The Individuality of Psychological Systems 33
11. The Process of Pursuing Purposes 63
4. Generation of Inputs: Perception, Consciousness, and Memory 65
5. Modeling the Situation: Beliefs 79
6. Evaluating the Situation: Feelings and Attitudes 100
7. Formulation and Evaluation of Choices: Thought and Intuition 108
8. Purposeful Systems and their Environments 117
Conclusion to Part II: A Paradigm for Inquiry 133
Ill. Interactions of Purposeful Systems 137
9. Feelings and Communication 139
10. Signs, Messages, and Language 160
11. Models of Communication 179
12. Conflict, Cooperation, and Competition 196
IV. Social Systems and Beyond 209
13. Social Groups as Systems 211
14. Ideal-Seeking Systems 237
Contents
15. Epilogue: Rounding the Conceptual Circle 248
Appendix I. 265
Appendix 11. 268
Appendix Ill. 274
Name Index 281
Subject Index 284
AldineTransaction Introduction
To have written a book that colleagues would want to read, let alone reissue, some
thirty-five years after its original publication is an enviable accomplishment to
say the very least. And so it is with On Purposeful Systems. First published in 1972
by Tavistock Publications, this landmark work by Russell L. Ackoff and Fred E.
Emery helped to provide the foundation for the area that is traditionally referred to
as general systems theory. Along with notable scholars like Ludwig von Bertalanffy,
Norbert Wiener, C. West Churchman, Magorah Maruyama, James G. Miller, and
Anatol Rapaport, Ackoff and Emery contributed to the articulation of a more
integrative way of thinking about and studying the universe. The systems para-
digm advanced a framework that focused on commonalities in structure and pro-
cess. In so doing, it offered concepts that transcended and unified diverse
disciplines and the phenomena upon which they focus. With a generic focus on
concepts such as organization, communication, relationship, wholeness, and pur-
pose, systems theory at once spanned and linked the study of atoms and galaxies,
cells and higher order organisms, individuals and societies.
Systems theorists offered a formidable challenge to the accepted views of cau-
sality, which emphasized the search for causal linkages, where independent and
dependent variables were linked in linear—“the former causes the latter”—se-
quences. Alternative explanations emphasized the possibility of the dynamic in-
terplay of variables in mutually-causal, deviation-reducing, and/or
deviation-amplifying relationships, where no linear sequences are discernible,
and indeed, questioning the very premise on which the search for linear sequences
is based.
In its more orthodox form, classical systems theory was a search for isomorphies—
identities—in process and structure across multiple levels and domains. Often, it
was the goal of these approaches to represent these universals with mathematical
or formulaic models. In its more liberal applications, systems theory was charac-
terized by the pursuit of analogies and similarities in structure and process that
ix