A SURVEY OF APPLIED SYSTEMOLOGY

In recent years there has been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with conventional, rigid conceptualizations of systems and a growing initi ative to supplant them with a more fluid paradigm for a general theory of systemicity. It has been proposed that a properly developed system ology would constitute an applied philosophy, highly relevant to a con structive re-vision, not only of the sciences but also of human affair s. A homeokinetic paradigm with a heterarchical (toroidal) topology ha s been recommended as a replacement for linear and hierarchical archet ypes of systems. This paper first reintroduces the central concepts of systemology, then offers a survey of some systemological applications under the following subheadings:how the idea of systemicity can be re conceived so as to unshackle imagination;how systemological theory hel ps to decode the literature and appraise the discourse about 'systems' ; how systemological principles can confirm and/or debunk cherished be liefs; how natural systems can be envisioned whole; how artificial sys tems may be planned and developed felicitously; how all systems in gen eral may be better appreciated.