Systems Thinking

Mode of thinking by which a material system is examined as a whole. Systems thinking starts out from the whole, first synthesizes, then analyzes, and finally reverts to a new synthesis on a higher stage, and has the features of wholeness, synthesis, quantification, and precision. It pays attention to the unity of structure and function to grasp the whole effects of things; the whole structure of a material system has to be grasped from the interconnection and interaction of various elements within the material system and from the relation between the material system and its external environment. Systems thinking has expanded men’s cognitive space through coordinates with multi-level, multi-angle and multi-network multidimensional coordinates. The concept of systems has provided a new perspective, and enabled men to move from knowing things and their processes to knowing systems, and to carry out a new synthesis of nature, society and thinking from a systems perspective. It has provided a series of principles of scientific methodology for grasping complex things, chiefly the principles of wholeness, order and dynamism, hierarchical systems and system development, modelling and optimization, etc. The systems approach is a scientific method of knowledge that analyzes and grasps complex things and their relationship.