International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

If the concept of "General Systems" is needing a clear scientific status, it would seem that no definitive agreement has yet been reached in this sense.

In 1977, I. BLAUBERG et al wrote: "Neither BERTALANFFY's conception nor, incidentally, the subsequent evolution of research in the general system theory has been able to resolve the dilemma "a scientific and technological theory or a methodology". Inasmuch as everything investigated in science may be represented as sets of interconnected elements, the system concept has a universal significance, while attempts at constructing a universal scientific and technological systems theory will probably be reduced to truisms" (1977, p.193).

… and "…the general system theory as a methodology of investigating system objects: I) is deprived of the status of a scientific theory, and 2) can be developed successfully only in the presence of systematically formulated and sufficiently rich systems theories and under the conditions of constructing a specific methodological language and the conceptual apparatus of research" (Ibid).

One basic difficulty seems to be rooted in the limits given to the significance of the system concept. It does not appears to be true that "everything investigated in science may be represented as sets of interconnected elements", or at least, not all interconnexions are complex.

There are different types of concrete systemic situations or systems, as for example, composite, autopoietic, isolated, open-closed, etc… for which we need different models. However all of these models have some common characteristics: a complex structure in space and time, non-linearity and regulations, a permanent identity.

On the other hand, during the last twenty-plus years a growing number of specifically systemic descriptive instruments did appear: systems dynamics, reconstructability analysis, catastrophe theory, fuzzy sets, fractals, percolation, deterministic chaos… which can be considered as a "tools box" of models.

One wonders if BLAUBERG et al would still maintain their opinion today (2004). It seems indeed that we are well on our way toward a general system theory (i.e. a general theory of complex systems) and methodology (having and using specific new models for the study and management of complex situations).