Ludwig von Bertalanffy

Austrian biologist (1901–1972), one of the founders of general systems theory — the interdisciplinary study of systems whose interacting parts produce behavior not reducible to those parts.

Bertalanffy argued that living things are open systems, exchanging matter and energy with their surroundings, and therefore not fully described by the classical thermodynamics of closed systems. From this he built a general theory of systems meant to apply across biology, cybernetics, the social sciences, and beyond — an early articulation of the interdisciplinary systems thinking that spread through mid-century science.

Role in Fuller's orbit

Bertalanffy is a pillar of the systems-science context in which Fuller's work sits. Fuller's insistence that "synergy" — whole-system behavior unpredicted by the parts — is the organizing fact of Universe runs closely parallel to general systems theory, and his Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth treats the planet as exactly the kind of open system Bertalanffy described.

See Also

• Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth) — Fuller's treatment of Earth as an open system to be managed whole

• Synergetics (Synergetics) — Fuller's whole-system geometry, kin to general systems theory

• We Are All Astronauts (We Are All Astronauts) — situates Fuller as a systems thinker

• Robert Sapolsky (Robert Sapolsky) \x{2014} neuroscientist exemplifying the general-systems view of behavior

• Norbert Wiener (Norbert Wiener) — cybernetics founder in the same systems-science current

Sources

• Ludwig von Bertalanffy (source reference) — Zotero People collection (Wikipedia entry)