Functional Differentiation, Systems Integration & Meta-systems Stratification

From the standpoint of universal systems theory, all event structures are organized on the basis of systems. It is by virtue of this deterministic organization that we can comprehend and make sense of event structures in the world. Any event structure therefore has a systems-based frame of reference by which that event structure can be comprehended and related to other similar or different event structures.

We develop typologies and taxonomies of different kinds of event structures that occur or may occur in reality. These are developed through the observation, study and comparison of event structures or "system," and from a scientific standpoint, usually in considerable detail. The fact that we are able to develop such typologies and taxonomies, particularly for natural systems, like the Periodic Table of the Elements and the Linnaean System of the phylogenic classification of living forms, presupposes a systems based organization to reality that would not otherwise be possible. 

We find in all systems development a trend that appears to defy the basic principle of thermodynamics when this is applied strictly to a model of closed systems--that is the emergence of complex states from previously simple and primitive states. We associate this with living systems in the main, and human systems especially, but we can find it to occur as well with the development of many physical systems.

The process of differentiation of systems, that tends to go from relatively simple and undetermined states towards more complex and determined states, seems to be inherent to all systems development. This trend is inherent to the under-determination of systems and the chaotic tendency that is part of natural variation. Semi-stable systems can coexist in a manner that allows divergence of function to occur. The stratification of alternative systems is an outcome of this divergence. All systems change, and all systems change in a manner that will in the long run become divergent from one another.

Stratification and differentiation of function occurs internally between components of systems as well as externally in a meta-systemic contexts between systems, and this reflects the natural hierarchy of systems stratification at all levels. The fact that this seems to be an ordered process, and results in the formation of rationally ordered taxonomies, is due to the systems principles that underlie such development.