Basic Books on Cybernetics and Systems Science

Other, specific bibliographic references of books and a selected number of papers can be found in the library database of the Department of Medical Cybernetics and AI at the University of Vienna. A number of more recent books and papers can be found in our bibliography on the complex, evolving systems.

The books with links below can be securely ordered and paid for over the web from Amazon.com, the largest bookstore on the Net.

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* Recommended

Excellent graphical introduction to dynamic systems theory.

Ackoff, Russel: (1972) On Purposeful Systems, Aldine Press, Chicago

Grand philosophy of human systems as teleological, goal-seeking. Structure, function, and purpose. Cognitive models and action in psychology; linguistics and semantics; conflict and cooperation; social systems.

Alan, TFH, and Starr, TB: (1982) Hierarchy: Perspective for Explaining Ecological Complexity, U. Chicago, Chicago

Anderson, PW, and Arrow, KJ et. al.: eds. (1988) Economy as an Evolving, Complex System, Addison-Wesley, New York

Critical anthology of system economic theory: applied mathematical techniques, dynamical theory, bounded rationality. Kauffman on "web searching"; Holland; Ruelle on nonlinear dynamics; Baum on neural nets.

Angyal, A: (1969) Logic of Systems, Penguin

Arbib, Michael A: (1972) Metaphorical Brain, Wiley, New York,

* Ashby, Ross: (1952) Design for a Brain, Wiley, New York.

A classic book, introducing fundamental systems concepts with examples related to the brain.

** (1956) Introduction to Cybernetics, Methuen, London

** (1981) Mechanisms of Intelligence: Writings of Ross Ashby/, ..... ed. Roger Conant

Atkin, RH: (1976) Mathematical Structure in Human Affairs, Heineman, London

Introduces Q-analysis, a methodology for identifying structures in data. The methodology uses some ideas of differential geometry.

Auger, Peter: (1990) Dynamics and Thermodynamics in Hier. Organized Sys., to appear

Aulin, AV: (1989) Foundations of Mathematical System Dynamics, Pergamon, Oxford

Causal recursion and its application to social science and economics, fundamental dynamics, self-steering, self-regulation, origins of life and mind.

* Aulin, AY: (1982) Cybernetic Laws of Social Progress, Pergamon, Oxford

Cybernetic social theory, including the Law of Requisite Hierarchy.

..... (1989) Foundations of Mathematical Systems Dynamics, Pergamon Press, Oxford

Barnsley, MF: (1988) Fractals Everywhere, Academic Press, San Diego

Best text on fractal geometry.

** Bateson, Gregory: (1972) Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Ballantine, New York

Bateson's critical essays. For purchase.

..... (1979) Mind and Nature, Bantam, New York

Unlike _Steps to an Ecology of Mind_, _Mind and Nature_ is an attempt at a coherent, popular statement of Bateson's philosophy.

Bayraktar, BA, and et. al., : eds. (1979) Education in Systems Science, Taylor and Francis, London

* Beer, Stafford: (1975) Platform for Change, Wiley, London

Foundational work in management cybernetics.

Bellman, Richard: (1972) Adaptive Control Processes: A Guided Tour, Princeton U, Princeton

An excellent book covering fundamental concept of systems science.

Beltrami, Edward: (1987) Mathematics for Dynamic Modeling, Academic Press, Orlando

Excellent mathematical introduction to dynamic systems theory, including catastrophe theory. Key results and theorems, examples. Many typos.

Blalock, HM: (1969) Systems Theory: From Verbal to Mathematical Formulation, Prentice Hall, Eng.Cliffs NJ

* Blauberg, IV, and Sadovsky, VN: (1977) Systems Theory: Philosophy and Methodological Problems, Progress, Moscow

One of the best overviews of philosphical and methodological development in systems theory, both in the Soviet Union and in the West.

Bogdanov, A.: (1980) Essays in Tektology, Intersystems

Translation of historical foundation of systems science.

Booth, TL: (1967) Sequential Machines and Automata Theory, Wiley, New York

One of the most comprehensive books on finite state machines, both deterministic and probablistic.

* Boulding, Ken: (1978) Ecodynamics, Sage, Beverly Hills

Unified theory of economics and social systems theory in terms of communicative processes.

..... (1985) World as a Total System, Sage, Beverley Hills

Brillouin, Leon: (1964) Scientific Uncertainty and Information, Academic Press, New York

Classic work on the relation between thermodynamics, information theory, and the necessary conditions for observability.

Brooks, DR, and Wiley, EO: (1988) Evolution as Entropy, 2nd edition, U. of Chicago, Chicago

Recent treatise on entropy as a general measure for biological study. Definitions of non-thermodynamic, non-informational entropies at multiple levels of analysis. Severely criticized.

Brown, G. Spencer: (1972) Laws of Form, Julian Press, New York

Philosophy of and notational system for propositional logic.

Basis for a whole school of graphical approaches to classical logic.

Brunner, RD, and Brewer, GD: (1971) Organized Complexity, Free Press, New York

Buckley, W: ed. (1968) Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist, Aldine, Chicago

Bunge, Mario: Method, Model, and Matter, D. Reydel

Campbell, Jeremy: (1982) Grammatical Man, Simon and Schuster, New York

Popular treatment of many aspects of cognitive science, information theory, and linguistics.

Cariani, Peter A: (1989) On the Design of Devices w/Emergent Semantic Functions, SUNY-Binghamton, Binghamton NY, NOTE: PhD Dissertation

Casti, John: (1979) Connectivity, Complexity and Catastrophe in Large-Scale Systems, J. Wiley, New York

..... * (1989) Alternate Realities: Mathematical Models of Nature and Man, Wiley, New York

Modern and very comprehensive text on mathematical modeling.

* Cavallo, Roger E: (1979) Role of Systems Methodology in Social Science Research, Martinus Nijhoff, Boston

Introduces the GSPS framework and discusses how it can be utilizes in social science research.

* Checkland, Peter: (1981) Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, Wiley, New York

Foundations of an area called soft systems methodology, for social systems management.

Christensen, Ronald: (1980) Entropy Minimax Sourcebook, Entropy Limited, Lincoln, MA, NOTE: Four volumes

..... (1983) Multivariate Statistical Modeling, Entropy Limited, Lincoln MA

Churchman, CW: (1968) Systems Approach, Delta, New York

General introduction to systems thinking in management.

..... (1971) Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Books, New York

..... (1979) Systems Approach and its Enemies, Basic Books, New York,

Social systems philosophy. But also really about logic and mathematical description, excluded middles as "enemies"; relation of epistemics to action. Lucid, entertaining, critical.

Clemson, Barry: (1984) Cybernetics: A New Management Tool, Abacus Press, Kent

Guide to the theory and practice of management cybernetics. Based on Beer.

Codd, EF: (1968) Cellular Automata, Academic Press, New York,

Csanyi, V: (1982) General Theory of Evolution, Akademia Kiado, Budapest

On universal evolution. Ambitious, non-technical discussion.

Davies, Paul: (1988) Cosmic Blueprint, Simon and Schuster, New York

Excellent popular survey of complex systems theory.

De Chardin, Teilhard: (1959) The Phenomenon of Man, Harper and Row, New York

Early systemic evolutionary theology.

Denbigh, Kenneth G: (1975) An Inventive Universe, Hutchinson, London

On emergence and thermodynamics.

Denbigh, Kenneth G, and Denbigh, JS: (1985) Entropy in Relation to Incomplete Knowledge, Cambridge U., Cambridge

Good survey of quantum statistical dynamics, objectivity and subjecticity, basis of the fundamental assumption of thermodynamics, resolution of Gibbs paradox, relation to information theory.

Distefano, JJ, and et. al., : (1967) Feedback and Control Systems, Schaum, New York

Dretske, Fred: (1982) Knowledge and the Flow of Information, MIT Press, Cambridge

Treatise on information theory, syntax, and semantic.

Edelman, G: (1987) Neural Darwinism, Basic Books, New York

Theory of selectional processes at the neural level.

Eigen, M, and Schuster, P: (1979) The Hypercycle, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg

Now classic work on the autocatalysis in chemical cycles: the cybernetic basis of metabolism.

Eigen, M, and R. Oswatitsch (1996): Steps Toward Life: a perspective on evolution

Erickson, Gary J: ed. (1988) Maximum-Entropy and Bayesian Methods in Science and Engineering, v. 1,2, Kluwer

Proceedings of the 5th, 6th, and 7th MaxEnt workshops. Foundations and applications. Spectral analysis, inductive reasoning, uncertainty and measurement, information theory in biology, etc.

Farlow, SJ: (1984) Self-Organizing Methods in Modeling, Marcel Dekker, New York

Feistel, Rainer, and Ebeling, Werner: (1988) Evolution of Complex Systems, Kluwer, New York

Oscillation and chaos in mechanical, electrical, chemical, and biological systems. Thermodynamics and spatial structures. Sequences, information, and language. Self-reproducgin systems, Lotka-Volterra systems.

Forrester, JW: (1961) Industrial Dynamics, MIT Press, Cambridge

..... (1971) World Dynamics, Wright and Allen, Cambridge

Influential early attempt at modeling the "world problem": the global economic-ecological web. Like the 's _Limits to Growth_.

..... * ed. (1975) Collected Papers of Jay W. Forrester, Wright-Allen, Cambridge

Papers by the outher of the "DYNAMO" differential systems tool, used for global ecological modeling.

Garey, MR, and Johnson, DS: (1979) Computers and Intractability: Guide to NP-Completeness, WH Freeman, San Francisco

One of the best monographs on computational complexity, NP-completeness and hardness, etc.

Gatlin, L: (1972) Information Theory and the Living System, Columbia U., New York

Classic work on the use of information theory in the analysis of genetic structure, evolution, and general biology.

* Gleick, James: (1987) Chaos: Making of a New Science, Viking, New York

Solid popular introduction to chaotic dynamics and fractal theory.

Glushkov, VM: (1966) Introduction to Cybernetics, Academic Press, New York

Excellent book on cybernetics, translated from Russian.

Greeniewski, H: Cybernetics Without Mathematics, Pergamon, Oxford

Gukhman, AA: (1965) Introduction to the Theory of Similarity, Acadenmic Press, New York

One of the excellent books on the theory of similarity.

* Haken, Herman: (1978) Synergetics, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg

Original work by this unique developer of a "competitor" to systems science as the study of natural complex systems.

..... (1988) Information and Self-Organization, Springer-Verlag, New York

On synergetics as the science of complex systems. Integrates information theory, bifurcation theory, maximum entropy theory, and semantics.

Hall, AD: (1989) Metasystems Methodology, Pergamon, Oxford

Halme, A, and et. al., : eds. (1979) Topics in Systems Theory, Acta Polytechnica, Scandanavia

Hammer, PC: ed. (1969) Advances in Mathematical Systems Theory, Penn St. U, U. Park, PA

Hanken, AFG, and Reuver, HA: (1981) Social Systems and Learning Systems, Martinus Nijhoff, Boston

Happ, HH: ed. (1973) Gabriel Kron and Systems Theory, Union College Press, Schenectady NY

Hartnett, WE: ed. (1977) Systems: Approaches, Theories, Applications, Reidel, Boston

Herman, GT, and Rozenberg, G: (1975) Developmental Systems and Languages, North-Holland, New York

* Holland, John: (1976) Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems, U. Michigan, Ann Arbor

On the genetic algorithms method of modeling adaptive systems.

..... Hidden Order : How Adaptation Builds Complexity

..... Induction : Processes of Inference, Learning and Discovery;

Kanerva, Penti: (1988) Sparse Distributed Memory, MIT Press, Cambridge

On the geometry of high dimensional, low cardinality spaces; application to associative memory.

Klir, George: (1969) An Approach to General Systems Theory, van Nostrand, New York

An early book that describes the nucleus of what is known now as the General Systems Problem Solver.

..... ed. (1972) Trends in General Systems Theory, Wiley, New York

Contains overviews of systems conceptual frameworks of Mesarovic, Wymore, and Klir; and other papers on some fundamental issues of systems science.

..... ed. (1981) Special Issue on Reconstructibility Analysis, in: Int. J. Gen. Sys., v. 7:1, pp. 1-107

Broekstra, Cavallo, Conant, Klir, Krippendorff

..... (1985) Architecture of Systems Problem Solving, Plenum, New York

Vast, general theory of epistemological systems, outline of a platform for general systems modeling and inductive inference.

..... **(1992) Facets of Systems Science, Plenum, New York

Reprints of most classical papers in systems science with an up-to-date introduction. Recommended for everyone as a general introduction to the domain

Klir, George, and Folger, Tina: (1987) Fuzzy Sets, Uncertainty, and Information, Prentice Hall

Primary text on fuzzy systems theory and extended information theory.

Koestler, Arthur, and Smythes, J.R.: eds. (1968) Beyond Reductionism, Hutchinson, London

Classical anthology on holism and reductionism.

Krinsky, VI: ed. (1984) Self-Organization: Autowaves and Structures Far From Equilibrium, Springer-Verlag, New York

Langton, Chris: ed. (1988) Artificial Life, Addison-Wesley

Proceedings from first artificial life conference. Pattee, Goel, Hufford, Klir.

Lerner, D: (1963) Parts and Wholes, Free Press, New York

* Lilienfeld, Robert: (1978) Rise of Systems Theory: An Ideological Analysis, Wiley-Intersciences, New York

A good critical view of some undesirable developments in the systems movement.

Lumsden, Charles, and Wilson, Edward: (1981) Genes, Mind, and Culture: the Coevolutionary Process, Harvard, Cambridge

Non-systemic attempt at unified biological evolutionary theory. Mind as necessary explanatory component from genes to culture. Sociobiology, biological constraint and cause of behavior. Epigenetic rules, epigenesis as coevolution. Mathematical, culturgens. Euculture as human culture, vs. protoculture. Bibliography, no thermodynamics.

Mandelbrot, BB: (1982) Fractal Geometry of Nature, WH Freeman, San Francisco

Classical work on the implications of fractal geometry for modeling physical systems.

Margalef, D Ramon: (1968) Perspectives in Sociological Theory, U. Chicago, Chicago

Maturana, HR, and Varela, F: (1987) Tree of Knowledge, Shambala

On cybernetics and constructivist psychology.

McCulloch, Warren: (1965) Embodiments of Mind, MIT Press, Cambridge

Meadows, Donella H, and Meadows, Dennis L: (1972) Limits to Growth, Signet, New York, and its follow-up Beyond the Limits

Famous report of the Club of Rome. First systems dynamics model of world ecology.

Mesarovic, MD: (1964) Views of General Systems Theory, Wiley, New York

Mesarovic, MD, and Macko, D: (1970) Theory of Hierarchical Multi-Level Systems, Academic Press, New York

Mesarovic, MD, and Takahara, Y: (1975) General Systems Theory: Mathematical Foundations, Academic Press, New York

Mesarovic, MD, and Takahara, : (1988) Abstract Systems Theory, Springer-Verlag, Berlin

Grand formalism for Systems Science. Fundamental behaviorism. Teleogical (functional) and material, causal (structural) descriptions as equivalent in system-description language. Defense of formalism as a kind of language. Systems as proper relations. Cybernetic systems as goal-seeking. Complexity as meta-systems (nesting). Introductions to category theory, topology, etc. Fuzzy systems as ** open** systems.

* Miller, James G: (1978) Living Systems, McGraw Hill, New York

General synthetic theory of biological systems. On functional self-similarity across levels of analysis.

Miser, HJ, and Quade, ES: eds. (1985) Handbook of Systems Analysis, North-Holland, New York

Monod, Jacques: (1971) Chance and Necessity, Vantage, New York

Famous essay on philosophical problems concerning theories of biological systems.

Morowitz, Harold J: (1968) Energy Flow in Biology, Academic Press, New York

On the thermodynamics and informational (entropic) dynamics of biological processes.

Morrison, P: (1982) Powers of Ten, in: Scientific American Books, WH Freeman, New York

"Guided tour" through the spatial scales of natural structure.

Negoita, CV, and Ralescu, DA: (1975) Applications of Fuzzy Sets to Systems Analysis, Birkhauser, Stuttgart

* Negotia, CV: (1981) Fuzzy Systems, Abacus Press, Tunbridge-Wells

Simple, coherent introduction to fuzzy systems theory.

Nicolis, G, and Prigogine, Ilya: (1977) Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems, Wiley, New York

Technical work on self-organization in flow systems, thermodynamic systems, and other describably in terms of partial differential equations.

* Odum, HT: (1983) Systems Ecology, Wiley, New York

Grand theory of global ecology. Thermodynamic basis of economy.

Pattee, Howard: ed. (1973) Hierarchy Theory, George Braziller, New York

Phillips, DC: (1976) Holistic Thought in Social Sciences

On synthesis on holism and reductionism.

Pines, David: ed. (1988) Emerging Syntheses in Science, Addison-Wesley, New York

Includes key articles by Charles Bennett and interesting looks at spin-glasses and solitons.

Powers, WT: (1973) Behavior, the Control of Perception, Aldine, Chicago

Radical constructivist cybernetic psychological theory.

* Prigogine, Ilya: (1980) From Being to Becoming, WH Freeman, San Francisco

On the whole Prigogine program for explanation of evolution in thermodynamic terms.

..... (1984) Order Out of Chaos, Bantam, New York

Famous, almost-popular treatment of the relation between far-from-equilibrium thermodynamic, general evolutionary theory, and natural philosophy.

Rapoport, Anatol: (1984) General Systems Theory: Essential Concepts and Applications, Abacus, Cambridge

Rescher, Nicholas: Scientific Explanation

Uses stochastic automata in a philosophy of theory.

..... (1979) Cognitive Systematization, Rowman and Littlefie, Totowa, NJ

Treatment of coherentist epistemolgoy and formal development of the necessary limits to knowledge.

Rosen, Robert: (1970) Dynamical Systems Theory in Biology, Wiley-Interscience, New York

..... (1985) Anticipatory Systems, Pergamon, Oxford

The only book on anticipatory systems at present.

Rosenkrantz, Roger D: ed. (1989) ET Jaynes Papers on Prob., Statistics and Statistical Physics, Kluwer

Collection of Jayne's best papers.

Sage, AP: (1977) Methodology for Large Scale Systems, McGraw-Hill, New York

Sandquist, GM: (1985) Introduction to Systems Science, Prentice Hall, Eng. Cliffs NJ

* Sayre, Kenneth: (1976) Cybernetics and the Philosophy of Mind, Humanities Press, Atl. High., NJ

Grand cybernetic evolutionary theory of mind.

Schrodinger, : (1967) What is Life?, Cambridge U., Cambridge,

Classic essay series on foundations of biological theory.

Shafer, Glen: (1976) A Mathematical Theory of Evidence, Princeton U., Princeton

On the foundations of extended information theory, in particular extended probabilities and Dempster-Shafer evidential inference.

Shannon, CE: ed. (1956) Automata Studies, Princeton U. Press, Princeton

First and historically very important book on automata; includes von Neumann on probabilistic automata.

Shannon, CE, and Weaver, W: (1964) Mathematical Theory of Communication, U. Illinois, Urbana

Classic work on the foundations of classical information theory.

Simon, Herbert: (1969) Sciences of the Artificial, MIT, Boston

..... (1977) Models of Discovery, Reidel, Boston

Skilling, John: ed. (1989) Maximum-Entropy and Bayesian Methods, Kluwer

Proceedings of the 8th MaxEnt workshop. Statistical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. Measurement, crystalography, spectroscopy, time series, power spectra, astronomy, neural nets. Fundamentals, statistics.

Skoglund, V: (1967) Similitude: Theory and Applications, Int. Textbook Co., Scranton PA

Smuts, JC: (1926) Holism and Evolution, McMillan, London

Early work on holism.

Steinbruner, JD: (1974) Cybernetic Theory of Decision, Princeton U, Princeton

Susiluoto, I: (1982) Origins and Development of Systems Thinking in USSR, in: Annales Acad. Scie.,Diss.HumanLitt., v. 30, Finnish Acad. Sci., Helsinki

* Szucz, E: (1980) Similitude and Modeling, Elsevier, New York,

Probably the most modern book on the theory of similarity.

Theil, H: (1967) Economics and Information Theory, Rand McNally, Chicago

Classic work on the use of information theory in economic theory.

Thom, Rene: (1975) Structural Stability and Morphogenesis, Addison-Wesley, Reading MA

..... (1983) Mathematical Models of Morphogenesis, Ellis Hortwood Ltd., New York

Topological approach to systems philosophy, catastrophe theory, dynamical systems.

Thompson, D'Arcy: (1959) On Growth and Form, Cambridge U., Cambridge

Classic work in early cybernetic biological theory.

Trappl, Robert: ed. (1983) Cybernetics: Theory and Applications, Hemisphere, Washington

Anthology of foundations of systems and cybernetics; review of applications; complete bibliography. Beer, Atlan, Pichler, Klir, Pask, Nowakowska, Arbib, Laszlo.

Turchin, Valentin: (1977) Phenomenon of Science, Columbia U., New York

Cybernetic theory of universal evolution. Metascience as a cybernetic enterprise.

Interpretation of totalitarianism from the persepctive of cybernetic social theory.

Van Laarhove, PJ, and Aarts, EHL: (1987) Simulated Annealing: Theory and Applications, Kluwer

On phase transitions.

von Foerster, Heinz: (1979) Cybernetics of Cybernetics, ed. K. Krippendorf, GordonandBreach, New York

ed. (1981) Observing Systems, Intersystems, Seaside CA

Many classic early cybernetics essays. On self-organization,memory without record (non-localized representation), computation of neural nets, necessities of biological function. Later essays on self-referential psychology much weaker.

von Neumann, John: (1958) Computer and the Brain, Yale U., New Haven

Classical essay on the theoretical foundations of cognitive science.

Waddington, CH: (1977) Tools for Thought, Cape, London

Warfield, JN: (1976) Societal Systems, Wiley-Interscience, New York

Wartofsky, MW: (1979) Models, Reidel, Boston

Weber, Bruce: ed. (1988) Entropy, Information, and Evolution, MIT Press, Cambridge

Primary reference. Wicken, Wiley, Brooks. Cities as dissipative structures.

* Weinberg, Gerard M.: (1975) An Introduction to General Systems Thinking, Wiley, New York

A readable and insightful book.

Weir, M: (1984) Goal-Directed Behavior, Gordon and Breach

Wicken, Jeffrey: (1987) Evolution, Information and Thermodynamics, Oxford U., New York

** Wiener, Norbert: (1948) Cybernetics. or Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine, MIT Press, Cambridge On the Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society

Wilden, Anthony: (1972) System and Structure, Tavistock, New York

Series of fascinating, polemical essays on a vast variety of subjects critical to systems and cybernetics and their relations to depth psychology, politics, and world culture.

Windeknecht, TG: (1971) General Dynamical Processes, Academic Press, New York

Wolfram, Steven: ed. (1986) Theory and Applications of Cellular Automata, Scientific Press

Wymore, AW: (1969) Mathematical Theory of Systems Engineering, Wiley, New York

..... (1976) Systems Engineering Methodology for Interdisc. Theory, Wiley, New York

Wymore, Wayne: Systems Theory

Yates, Eugene: ed. (1987) Self-Organizing Systems: the Emergence of Order, Plenum, New York

Critical collection on self-organizing systems. Includes Iberall, Morowitz, Arbib, Pattee, Haken, Caianiello, Abraham and Shaw.

Zadeh, Lofti A, and Desoer, CA: (1963) Linear Systems Theory, Mcraw-Hill, New York

Zeeman, EC: (1977) Catastrophe Theory, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA

Development of hysteresis and catastrophe theory as a modeling tool for systems science.

Zeigler, BP, and Elzas, MS et. al.: eds. (1979) Methodology in Systems Modeling and Simulation, North-Holland, New York

Zeleny, Milan: ed. (1981) Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organization, North-Holland, New York

Critical anthology on this theory of self-organization, including Maturana and Varela.