International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

In his "Living Systems" (1978), MILLER introduced seven levels. Later on, he added the "community" level, in-between the "organization" and the "society" (1990, p. 158).

MILLER's taxonomy of levels of organization refers to living systems. It thus excludes physical ones, as for instance the solar system. Its meaning is different of, but not incompatible with LE MOIGNE's nine levels (see hereafter)

MILLER's levels are ordered with reference to their growing complexity. They are:

- the cell, composed of different interacting organelles, as nucleus, mitochondria, ribosomes and Golgi apparatus;

- the organ, internally organized as composed of different classes of cells;

- the organism, a globally organized complex of various types of interacting organs;

These are the three purely biological levels. The next five ones are sociological;

- the group, a reunion of organisms, endowed with different capabilities and collaborating in pursuit of some common goal, as a family;

- the organization, a group of groups, also endowed with specialized capabilities, and pursuing a global goal, in need of a good coordination of specific sub-goals, as an industrial plant;

- the community, a complex of organizations, seeking still more general and complex goals, as a city;

- the society, an articulated complex of communities, with global meta-goals, as a nation;

- the supra-national system, with goals common to various national societies, as the European Union, or the United Nations Organization.

It would be interesting to find out the possible application of some similar taxonomy to insect societies, for example, or to ecological communities.