Systems Theory Glossary

The ability of a system to adjust its behavior, structure, or strategies in response to changing conditions or disturbances.

A system's capacity to reproduce and maintain itself by continuously creating its own components and defining its own boundaries.

The conceptual or physical demarcation separating a system from its environment, determining what is included in the analysis.

A system of many interacting agents that adapt their behavior based on experience, producing emergent collective behaviors.

The study of feedback, communication, and control mechanisms in systems, applicable to machines, organisms, and organizations.

Properties or behaviors of a system that arise from component interactions but are not present in any single component.

The tendency of systems toward disorder and energy dissipation, from the second law of thermodynamics.

Everything outside the system boundary that can influence or be influenced by the system.

The principle that the same final state can be reached from different initial conditions through different paths in open systems.

A circular causal pathway where the output of a system is routed back to influence its input, either amplifying or dampening change.

The principle that a system as a whole has properties that cannot be understood from the properties of its parts alone.

An entity that is simultaneously a whole in itself and a part of a larger system, coined by Arthur Koestler.

The maintenance of stable internal conditions in a system through negative feedback regulation.

A place in a complex system where a small intervention can produce large changes in system behavior.

A feedback mechanism that counteracts change, promoting stability and equilibrium in a system.

The import of energy and information by an open system to maintain or increase internal organization, counteracting entropy.

A system property where outputs are not proportional to inputs, enabling disproportionate effects and emergent behavior.

A system that exchanges matter, energy, and information with its environment.

A feedback mechanism that amplifies change, driving a system further from its current state.

The approach of understanding complex phenomena by breaking them down into simpler constituent parts. Systems theory arose partly as a response to the limitations of reductionism.

Ashby's law that a system's regulator must match the variety of disturbances it faces.

A system's capacity to absorb disturbance while retaining essentially the same function, structure, and identity.

Spontaneous emergence of order and structure in a system without external direction, arising from local interactions.

A modeling methodology using stocks, flows, and feedback loops to simulate complex system behavior over time, developed by Jay Forrester.

The practical application of systems theory: seeing interconnections, understanding feedback, and recognizing emergent patterns rather than focusing on isolated events.