by Hugh M. Lewis

The development of a genuine meta-scientific paradigm that is general & applied systems based has been delayed by the paradigmatic entrenchment of many fields & domains of science in a classical model of science and scientific method that tends to be analytically restrictive. Very few people involved in science have embraced a larger systems or meta-systems framework for the contextualization and reformulation of their respective disciplinary interests & involvements. Specialization and hyper-compartmentalization of research frameworks has reinforced a narrow-minded attitude toward the larger goals of science. Disciplines of science, analytically restrictive to certain problem sets and related areas of interest, have achieved great success in general in solving such problem sets and in elaborating alternative systems that were spin-offs of such specialized development. But this progress in the narrow sense of the term has been achieved only at considerable cost and loss of control over the larger framework and generality of worldview that permits the contextualization and realization of the relativity and relevancy of different forms knowledge within a common general framework of reference. Upon a social level we end up with a somewhat schizoid worldview that is compartmentalized into smaller spheres of interest and involvement.

To offer general systems theory & method as a new paradigm for the unification of all the sciences and their technological/engineering spin-offs, in terms of especially of natural systems theory and meta-systems methodologies, is to embrace the differences between the many, highly differentiated specializations of science, and to offer a shared conceptual and operational platform for inter-disciplinary collaboration, cross-fertilization of ideas & new designs, and to provide frameworks for new approaches and perspectives to what can be called received problem sets in established scientific disciplines.

The only manner in which we can conceive of a unified paradigm of science is in terms of systems based science--this is not only the most appropriate framework for the organization and unification of scientific knowledge across all fields of scientific interest and inquiry, but provides as well the coherent theoretical models and the consistent empirical methods by which to achieve new understanding of the order of our reality and to augment this reality through the creation and development of entirely new, alternative systems.

The development of a sufficient systems-based paradigm of science does not necessarily or only depend upon the opening up of the mind and processes within each sub-disciplinary field of scientific endeavor, but perhaps more importantly upon such a "meta-systems" based framework being able to devise an adequate analytical methodology and set of methods that is sufficient to the task of cross-disciplinary application.

General Systems Essays, Vol. I