Facets of Systems Science – Second Edition

Facets of Systems Science – Second Edition

George J. KlirKluwer Academic/Plenum PublishersNew York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow2001 Augustxvii + 740 pp.ISBN 0-306-46623-6Hardbound – EUR 144.00/USD 125.00/GBP 87.00

This book is Volume 15 of the International Federation for Systems Research International Series on Systems Science and Engineering. The purpose of this review is to bring to reader's attention the publication of the Second Edition of Professor George Klir's excellent book. In his Preface he says that "a lot of experience was obtained by using the first edition of this book for many years as a text for a typical course 'Introduction to Systems Science' in systems science programs". He believes that by utilizing this experience he has made the book a better text. There are, apart from many minor revisions, several major changes these include:

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  A substantial number of exercises

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  Individual chapters are broken into more sections to make it easier for students to get oriented.

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  Some issues are explained more thoroughly

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  Some important new references are added to the bibliography.

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  Finally, two papers in Part II are replaced with three new papers that cover topics that are believed to be of great importance for systems science students.

Most books, and in particular those written as student texts can only benefit from a revision and in some cases for a complete up-date. Few subjects in our age of rapidly changing technology and ideas can afford to be set in stone.

The author is right in believing that the revised edition is "more comfortable" for both students and instructors.

For those readers of this journal who are unacqainted with this work, its origins are in 1989 and with publication of the First Edition in 1991. Since then it has given excellent service to not only educational establishments which specialise in systems science and require. an authoritative teaching text, but also to the general reader who is sufficiently inquisitive to want to find out what systems science is really about. There is no better way to do this than to plough through a well-written text book. The primary purpose of this text in 1991 and now in 2002 is to help the reader to develop an adequate general impression of what systems science is, what its main historical roots are, what its relationship is with other areas of human affairs, what its current status is and what its role is likely to be. In addition the author's initial aim was to help the reader identify sources for further study of various aspects of systems science.

In essence it attempts, and largely succeeds in answering the question "What is System Science?". The strategy for providing the answer to that question remains the same in the second edition as in the first. The book has been divided into two parts: Systems Science: A Guided Tour and: Classical Systems Literature.

The "Guided Tour" of Part I tells us a great deal about systems: The Systems Movement: Systems Methodology and also Metamethodology; Systems Knowledge. It also is concerned with "Conceptual Frameworks", "Complexity", "Simplification Strategies", and "Goal-Oriented Systems". It ends with a chapter on "Systems Science in Retrospect and Prospect" which provides a balanced view of systems science which is, of course still in the process of change. Indeed the author could well bring Chapter 11 of his text into a new perspective every few years such is the pace of change and fashion.

Part II of the text is unusual in that it is a set of carefully chosen original papers that are concerned with the facets of systems science discussed in Part I. As already stated, two of the papers of the original edition have been replaced by three new ones. The papers were well choosen and some were edited. The authors are well-known for their contribution to the field.

The book will continue to stimulate readers and serve as a most comprehensive text for many courses of study in the field of systems science. It was well worth publishing a Second Edition which will surely be greeted with enthusiasm by both potential users and by their teachers.

One final remark, however is that the use of mathematics has been minimized which in itself means that it will be suitable for many of the courses that nowadays have to be designed for the increasing number of students who have little technical or mathematical training.

D. M. Hutton