Systems thinking is about analyzing the behavior of a system holistically. Oftentimes, systems are attempted to be understood reductionistically, meaning that the behavior of a system could theoretically be predicted by accounting for all of its parts. It is not always possible to do this, although many of the so-called "hard sciences" are known as such because they are successful in creating reductionist explanations of phenomena. The so-called "soft sciences" on the other hand often struggle to explain the behavior of phenomena reductionistically because what they attempt to explain is observed on the systems level. Just attempt to explain the behavior of a society or the behavior of a person by understanding the total of its parts; it is very difficult. On the other hand, when we apply systems concepts, we can account for the behavior of such systems and develop systemic models that allow us to predict their behavior. The reason that many complex systems can not be explained reductionistically is because they exhibit [[Emergence]], which occurs when the whole system acquires some property that the parts do not have. We can analyze systems using [[Networks]], which allow for the possibility of systems phenomena such as [[Feedback Loops]]. --- #Philosophy #Systems *May 29, 2021* #2021/5