 UTILIZAREA TEORIEI GENERALE A SISTEMELOR ŞI A TERMODINAMICII LA DEZVOLTAREA COMUNITĂŢILOR LOCALEMihai BĂLAN Florin Cristinel URECHE and
Oana Mateescu ()
No 2011/399, Papers from Osterreichish-Rumanischer Akademischer Verein Abstract: Social work is analyzed from the view of general system theory as presented in works of J.G. Miller and thermodynamics theory, particularly the second axiom. Thermodynamics theory helps explain some life experiences in local communities from a wider prospective and provides a more complex understanding of dimensions of social work. Human’s desire for a universal idea to encompass the complexity of being and the environment in which we would like to live, as well as the one we are forced to live in, is a never-ending constant in human intellectual creativity. No theoretical trend, nor serious and comprehensive theory, whether of natural or social sciences, has such an aspiration, at its base. Religion is the only area of human intellectual endeavor in which this ideal has completely succeeded. Religion has come close to the struggle by recognizing the imperfections of human experience and of the infinite nature and completeness of the divine. That the soul is universal is deeply rooted in religious teachings, is a significant inspiration for many theoretical approaches and is a sociological factor for scholars both directly and indirectly through culture. General systems theory is another attempt by human thinkers to find some kind of general answer to inherent reality. General systems theory emerged as a response to a branch of research about Cartesian’s fear, an expression coined by Richard Bernstein denoting a situation where nothing exists except for two possibilities--to either create a theory based on a solid foundation or to not create any theory of any kind. Some of the proponents of systems theory emphasize that it originated from a need to bridge the enormous amount of scientific material that is increasing at such a rate that it is fast becoming unserviceable. The world catalog of scientific magazines has redoubled every 15 years (Miller, 1978). This led George Miller to call the world scientific periodicals “the catalog of spare parts for the machine which has never been built” (Miller, 1978, p.5). A second, more substantial, reason for the development of general systems theory was opposition to the Darwinian way of thinking, that points out the differences in the entities to be found in nature. Systems theoreticians, in contrast to Darwinists, are more impressed by the many similarities in the entities which surround us than with their differences. From this flows the desire for one sufficiently general theory, which is implicit about the unity of science as a general and universal characteristic of humans. Such unity will encompass all natural and social processes and enable researchers and thinkers to consider the widest areas of life. Systems theory may also make possible the development of a uniform and generally understood scientific language for researchers from a variety of disciplines. The intention of theoreticians of general systems theory is not a new or a specific philosophical monism, according to which all essentially phenomena, both social and natural, are the normal consequence of methodological unity. Rather, theoreticians of general systems theory warn that the use of some methodological, as well as theoretical concepts, from for example, the area of natural sciences, in the area of social sciences are as metaphors and not as a direct methodological arsenal (Khalil & Boulding, 1996). They warn that care must be taken when these various constructs (metaphors) are employed so that mistakes will not be made in their identification. Keywords: psychology (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:sphedp:2011_399 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Papers from Osterreichish-Rumanischer Akademischer Verein Kuhn Platz 6 Wien. Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.