The VSM
Regardless of whether we're talking about his general cybernetic modeling, his other models or other overviews, it is typical of Stafford Beer that he can make complex interrelationships easily understandable at first glance. One fascinating example of this is his model of a reading list in "The Heart of Enterprise".
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The model consists of a circle with segments representing different scientific fields, such as mathematics, systems theory, physics, philosophy, biology, psychology, social economics and aesthetics. Stafford Beer uses the circle to demonstrate the influence of a large number of cyberneticists and other scientists on the development of his Viable System Model that forms the center of the circle.
Starting from the center of the model, we would like to present to you briefly the authors in this bibliography. The majority of these thinkers have made an impact in more than one scientific discipline. For this reason we have assigned them to the categories in Stafford Beer's model. This allocation to the different disciplines should be seen primarily in the context of the works by the scientists that he has quoted.
The links we recommend offer additional information about their work. They will take you to independent websites run by other operators. The Cwarel Isaf Institute takes no responsibility for the operation or the content of the websites listed below.
Warren McCulloch
Philosophy, Biology
Websites:
www.gwu.edu
W. Ross Ashby
Biology
Websites:
web.library.uiuc.edu
www.santafe.edu
gwis.circ.gwu.edu
citeseer.nj.nec.com
Humberto Maturana
Biology
Websites:
www.inteco.cl
www.gwu.edu
home.datacomm.ch
Francisco Varela, 1946-2001
Biology, Psychology, Mathematics
Websites:
web.ccr.jussieu.fr
www.enolagaia.com
home.datacomm.ch
William Powers
Biology
Websites:
home.att.net
www.frontier.net
www.geocities.com
browse.addall.com
V. Lawrence Parsegian
Systems Theory, Physics
Website:
scolar.vsc.edu
Gregory Bateson
Philosophy
Websites:
www.oikos.org
www.crazytigerinstitute.com
jan.ucc.nau.edu
www.global-vision.org
Conrad Hal Waddington
Philosophy
Websites:
www.ri.bbsrc.ac.uk
www.nybooks.com
zygote.swarthmore.edu
s1.amazon.com
Réné Thom
Systems Theory, Mathematics
Websites:
www.lawyoucantrust.com
www.utqueant.org
www.exploratorium.edu
http://216.239.51.100
www.amazon.com
George Spencer-Brown
Mathematics
Websites:
www.enolagaia.com
www.rgshoup.com
James Grier Miller
Psychology, Social Economics
Websites:
www.isss.org
www.newciv.org
Russell Lincoln Ackoff
Psychology
Websites:
www.bfi.org
www.cnam.fr
www.lib.uwo.ca
www.amazon.com
Gerd Sommerhoff
Biology
Websites:
dspace.dial.pipex.com
www.amazon.com
George J. Klir
Systems Theory
Websites:
mathcs.wilkes.edu
C. West Churchman
Philosophy
Websites:
www.cnr.berkeley.edu
www.isss.org
Illia Prigogine
Physics
Websites:
www.nobel.se
www.unex.es
utenti.lycos.it
www.crs4.it
Paul Glansdorff
Physics
Websites:
www.fortunecity.com
www.ccic-cerisy.asso.fr
Claude E. Shannon
Physics
Websites:
www.press.uillinois.edu
www.research.att.com
www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk
www8.informatik.uni-erlangen.de
www.kybernetiknet.de/messages/18.html
www.research.att.com
Warren Weaver
Physics
Websites:
www.rockefeller.edu
www.ceptualinstitute.com
Norbert Wiener
Physics, Systems Theory
Websites:
www.cybsoc.org
www.tufts.edu
Viktor M. Glushkov
Systems Theory, Mathematics
Websites:
www.icyb.kiev.ua/
Donald A. Schon
Social Economics
Websites:
web.mit.edu
the-tech.mit.edu
www.infed.org
shopping.yahoo.com
www.amazon.com
Geoffrey Vickers
Social Economics
Websites:
www.aim25.ac.uk
www.open2.net
www.open2.net
www.me.uvic.ca
www.kcl.ac.uk
nucleus.cshl.org
arc.cs.odu.edu
Gordon Pask
Psychology
Websites:
www.pangaro.com/Pask-Archive/Pask-Archive.html
www.isss.org/lumPask.html
www.venus.co.uk/gordonpask/
www.gwu.edu/~asc/biographies/Pask/
Lancelot Law Whyte
Biology, Psychology
Websites:
www.kli.ac.at
www.lojban.org
www.alibris.com
www.abebooks.de
www.abebooks.de/suche
Nicolas Rashevsky
Biology
Websites:
nucleus.cshl.org
www.kli.ac.at/theorylab/AuthPage/R/RashevskyN.html
www.kli.ac.at/theorylab/AuthPage/R/RosenR.html
www.artsci.wustl.edu
www.phil.vt.edu
Hermann Weyl
Aesthetics
Websites:
www.bib.ulb.ac.be
mtcs.truman.edu
www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk
www.math.uni-goettingen.de
www.amazon.de
Walter Buckley
Psychology
Websites:
www.cedarcreek.org
www.geocities.com
Ludwig von Bertalannfy
Systems Theory
Websites:
www.isss.org
www.psy.pdx.edu
www.kli.ac.at/theorylab
J. Christopher Jones
Aesthetics
Website:
www.addall.com
Christopher Alexander
Aesthetics
Websites:
www.math.utsa.edu
www.greatbuildings.com
www.lclark.edu
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen
Social Economics
Websites:
cepa.newschool.edu
dieoff.org
eh.net/lists/archives
www.geocities.com
Ramon Margalef
Biology
Website:
www.ua.es
D'Arcy Thompson
Biology
Websites:
www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk
www.mcs.dundee.ac.uk
www.geo.ed.ac.uk
Tsu Chuang
Philosophy
Website:
www.eheart.com
Kenneth .J.W. Craik
Philosophy
Websites:
www.tcd.ie
www.psy.gu.se
Werner Heisenberg
Physics
Nicolas Bourbaki
Mathematics
Websites:
http://www.bourbaki.ens.fr/
http://www.cs.unb.ca
http://fr.encyclopedia.yahoo.com
Reuben Louis Goodstein
Mathematics
Website:
www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk
Roy A. Rappaport
Social Economics
Websites:
orpheus.ucsd.edu
emuseum.mnsu.edu
www.umich.edu
Niccolo Machiavelli
Philosophy
Websites:
www.niccolo-machiavelli.com
www.orst.edu
www.ctbw.com
www.utm.edu
www.lucidcafe.com
books.mirror.org
