Spencer’s Reviews > General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications > Status Update

it should be pointed out that selection, competition and “survival of the fittest” already presuppose the existence of self-maintaining systems; they therefore cannot be the result of selection.

Continuous working capacity is, therefore, not possible in a closed system which tends to attain equilibrium as soon as possible, but only in an open system. The apparent “equilibrium” found in an organism is not a true equilibrium incapable of performing work; rather it is a dynamic pseudo-equilibrium, kept constant at a certain distance from true equilibrium; so being capable of performing work

There is some sense in considering a real organization as an organism...Quasi-biological functions are demonstrable in organizations. They maintain themselves; they sometimes reproduce or metastasize; they respond to stresses; they age, and they die. Organizations have discernible anatomies and those at least which transform material inputs (like industries) have physiologies.

If we are speaking of “systems,” we mean “wholes” or “unities.” Then it seems paradoxical that, with respect to a whole, the concept of competition between its parts is introduced. In fact, however, these apparently contradictory statements both belong to the essentials of systems. Every whole is based upon the competition of its elements, and presupposes the “struggle between parts”

In the last two decades we have witnessed the emergence of the “system” as a key concept in scientific research. Systems, of course, have been studied for centuries, but something new has been added. . . . The tendency to study systems as an entity rather than as a conglomeration of parts.

it is a striking fact that biological systems as diverse as the central nervous system, and the biochemical regulatory network in cells should be strictly analogous . . . it is all the more remarkable when it is realized that this particular analogy between different systems at different levels of biological organization is but one member of a large class of such analogies.