Ackoff (1973) "Science in the Systems Age: beyond IE, OR and MS." in: Operations Research Vol 21, pp. 664.
1970s
“There exists an alternative to reductionism for studying systems. This alternative is known as holism. Holism considers systems to be more than the sum of their parts. It is of course interested in the parts and particularly the networks of relationships between the parts, but primarily in terms of how they give rise to and sustain in existence the new entity that is the whole whether it be a river system, an automobile, a philosophical system or a quality system.”
Source: Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers (2003), p. 4
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Mike Jackson 11
systems scientist 1951Related quotes
“A system is more than the sum of its parts; it is an indivisible whole.”
It loses its essential properties when it is taken apart. The elements of a system may themselves be systems, and every system may be part of a larger system.
Ackoff (1973) "Science in the Systems Age: beyond IE, OR and MS." in: Operations Research Vol 21, pp. 664.
1970s
Source: The Functions of the Executive (1938), p. 98-99, footnote
“A system is more than the sum of its parts.”
Source: Sociology and modern systems theory (1967), p. 42.
Lean Logic, (2016), p. 194, entry on Holism http://www.flemingpolicycentre.org.uk/lean-logic-surviving-the-future/
Source: Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers (2003), p. 3-4
Source: In Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action, (2013), p. 118
Cited in: Haluk Demirkan, James C. Spohrer, Vikas Krishna (2011) The Science of Service Systems. p. 274.
1970s, Towards a System of Systems Concepts, 1971