Systemic virtues as a foundation for a general theory of design elegance

David Rousseau, Julie Billingham and Javier Calvo‐Amodio

Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2019, vol. 36, issue 5, 656-667

Abstract: Recent discussion and research in systems engineering have highlighted the need for a principled approach to attaining elegance in engineered systems, in order to enhance product value and reduce life cycle risks. In this paper, we analyse the “elegance factors” pertaining to designed systems from the perspective of the philosophy of value (axiology) and characterize the elegance factors as “systemic virtues,” analogous to philosophical models of the factors pertaining to the “goodness” of persons and scientific theories. We defend the possibility of the existence and discovery of general systems laws that could ground a general theory of design elegance, and report on our strategy and progress in developing methods for discovering such laws and for developing such a theory.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2627

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:srbeha:v:36:y:2019:i:5:p:656-667

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1092-7026

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Systems Research and Behavioral Science from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().