International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

A basic characteristic of systemics, which allows the uses of analogies, homomorphisms and isomorphisms between different disciplines as a methodology.

According to G. KLIR, this characteristic implies at least three important consequences: "First, systems science knowledge and methodology are directly applicable in virtually all disciplines of classical science. Second, systems science has the flexibility to study systemhood properties of systems and the associated problems that include aspects derived from any number of different disciplines and specializations of classical science. Such cross-disciplinary systems and problems can thus be studied as wholes rather than collections of the disciplinary subsystems and subproblems. Third, the cross-disciplinary orientation of systems science has a unifying influence on classical science, increasingly fractured into countless numbers of narrow specializations, by offering unifying principles that transcend its self-imposed boundaries. Classical science and systems science may thus be viewed as complementary dimensions of modern science" (1993, p.29).