The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is the oldest society for systems thinking. It began in 1954, when four scholars spending a year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the economist Kenneth Boulding, the physiologist Ralph Gerard and the mathematician Anatol Rapoport, decided to found a society for general systems theory. It began operating in 1955–56 as the Society for General Systems Research and took its present name in 1988.
Aims
Its founders wanted to find the same structures (“isomorphisms”) across different sciences, build theoretical models that could travel between fields, avoid duplicated theoretical work, and improve communication between specialists. These aims overlap closely with those of cybernetics, and many people have been active in both traditions.
Relation to cybernetics
General systems theory and cybernetics grew up at the same time and are often confused. Systems theory tends to focus on the structure and organisation of wholes; cybernetics on regulation, feedback and communication. The ISSS published the influential General Systems yearbook from 1956, and its annual conferences remain a meeting point for systems scientists, systems engineers and cyberneticians.
Further reading
- isss.org
- Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory (1968)