Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Figures and Tables -- FIGURES -- TABLES -- Preface to the Paperback Edition -- Preface -- NOTES -- Acknowledgments -- PROLOGUE The Quest for Peace in a Nuclear World -- NOTES -- ONE The Behavioral Sciences in Postwar America -- THE SOCIETY FOR GENERAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH -- CRITIQUE AND RESPONSE -- HISTORICAL ROOTS OF SYSTEMS THINKING -- DEFINING THE GENERAL-SYSTEMS APPROACH -- THE FOUNDERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR GENERAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH -- EVALUATING THE HERITAGE OF GENERAL-SYSTEMS THOUGHT -- NOTES -- PART I The Sources of Systems Thinking -- TWO The Science of Life: Organization in Living Systems -- VITALISM AND MECHANISM -- THE EMERGENCE OF ORGANICISM -- THE CLAUDE BERNARD SCHOOL OF PHYSIOLOGY -- NOTES -- THREE Engineering, Management, and the Military-Industrial Complex -- OPERATIONS RESEARCH, SYSTEMS ANALYSIS, AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCE -- NOTES -- FOUR Cybernetics and Information Theory: Feedback and Homeostasis -- FEEDBACK: CONCEPTUAL ORIGINS -- CYBERNETICS: FEEDBACK IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY -- INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION THEORY -- TWO STRANDS OF FEEDBACK THOUGHT -- CYBERNETICS AND SOCIAL THEORY -- NOTES -- FIVE Ecology and Social Theory: Structure, Function, and Evolution -- THE EVOLUTION OF ECOLOGY -- PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL THEORY -- THE ORIGINS OF MODERN SOCIAL THOUGHT -- THE INTERPRETIVE TRADITION -- PARSONIAN FUNCTIONALISM -- NOTES -- PART II The Founders of General Systems Research -- SIX Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972): General Systems Theory -- VIENNA: GREETING A NEW CENTURY -- ORGANISMIC BIOLOGY -- OPEN SYSTEMS -- GENERAL SYSTEM(S) THEORY -- CYBERNETICS AND GST: MECHANISTIC VERSUS ORGANISMIC MODELS -- MATHEMATICS AND ISOMORPHIC RELATIONSHIPS -- TOWARD A NEW IMAGE OF HUMANITY: GST IN PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE -- BEYOND THE ROBOT IMAGE.

CULTURE: THE SYMBOLIC DIMENSION -- CRITIQUES OF BERTALANFFY AND GST -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- SEVEN The Chicago Behavioral Science Committee -- RALPH GERARD (1900-1974) -- Neurophysiology and the Organismic Conception of Society -- A Life of Ambition, Genius, and Passion -- Neurophysiology and Information Theory -- The Organismic Conception of Society -- The Role of Science -- ANATOL RAPOPORT (b. 1911) -- Mathematical Biology, Game Theory, and the Prisoner's Dilemma -- From Russia to Chicago -- Intellectual Passions -- General Systems Theory -- The Symbolic Dimension: Values and General Semantics -- Game Theory and Conflict Resolution -- Enlightenment and Progress -- JAMES GRIER MILLER (b. 1916) -- The Behavioral Sciences and Living Systems Theory -- Life and Thought -- Chicago -- Michigan and Beyond -- The Committee on the Behavioral Sciences -- The Mental Health Research Institute -- Living Systems Theory -- CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS -- NOTES -- EIGHT Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993): Economics, Ecology, and Peace -- FROM LIVERPOOL TO BOULDER: THE QUEST FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE -- MICHIGAN: THE FORD FOUNDATION AND THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES -- THE CHALLENGE OF COMMUNISM -- TOWARD AN INTEGRATED THEORY OF SOCIAL INTERACTION -- CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND THE INTEGRATIVE CONCEPT -- CONCLUSION: SYSTEMS THEORY AND THE ABUSE OF POWER -- NOTES -- PART III Evolution and Evaluation -- NINE The Society for General Systems Research: Establishment and Development -- ORIGINS: THE CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDY IN THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES -- ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT -- VARIATIONS ON THE GENERAL-SYSTEMS THEME -- TOWARD PARTICIPATORY AND EMANCIPATORY MODELS -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- Epilogue -- CONFLICT AND SYNTHESIS -- THE POSSIBILITY OF SELF-TRANSCENDENCE -- NOTES -- Bibliography -- ARCHIVAL MATERIALS -- WORKS CITED -- Index -- About the Author.