Authors:

Ludwig von Bertalanffy Quotes

We are seeking another basic outlook: the world as an organization. This would profoundly change categories of our thinking and influence our practical attitudes. We must envision the biosphere as a whole with mutually

We are seeking another basic outlook: the world as an organization. This would profoundly change categories of our thinking and influence our practical attitudes. We must envision the biosphere as a whole with mutually reinforcing or mutually destructive inter-dependencies.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Attitude, Thinking, Organization
"Robots, Men and Minds". Book by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, p. 57, 1967.

People are not machines, but in all situations where they are given the opportunity, they will act like machines.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Opportunity, People, Machines

Progress is only possible by passing from a state of undifferentiated wholeness to differentiation of parts.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Progress, Differentiation, Passing
"General System Theory". Book by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Chapter 3: "Some System Concepts in Elementary Mathematical Consideration", p. 69, 1968.

Considering the inconceivable complexity of processes even in a simple cell, it is little short of a miracle that the simplest possible model - namely, a linear equation between two variables - actually applies in quite a general number of cases.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Simple, Two, Numbers

Thus even supposedly unadulterated facts of observation already are interfused with all sorts of conceptual pictures, model concepts, theories or whatever expression you choose. The choice is not whether to remain in the field of data or to theorize; the choice is only between models that are more or less abstract, generalized, near or more remote from direct observation, more or less suitable to represent observed phenomena.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Expression, Data, Choices

I think that the fact that a theory so vague, so insufficiently verifiable, and so far from the criteria otherwise applied in "hard" science, could become a dogma, can be explained only on sociological grounds.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Facts, Dogma, Criteria
"Perspectives on general system theory: scientific-philosophical studies".

It is the 'zoomorphic' or 'rattomorphic' fallacy - the expressed or implicit contention that there is no essential difference between rat and man - which makes American psychology so profoundly disturbing.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Men, Differences, Psychology

You May Also Like: