Table of Contents

AldineTransaction Introduction, Preface, I. Foundations, 1. On Human Behavior as a System, 2. Structure, Function, and Purpose, 3. The Individuality of Psychological Systems, II. The Process of Pursuing Purposes, 4. Generation of Inputs: Perception, Consciousness, and Memory, 5. Modeling the Situation: Beliefs, 6. Evaluating the Situation: Feelings and Attitudes, 7. Formulation and Evaluation of Choices: Thought and Intuition, 8. Purposeful Systems and their Environments, III. Interactions of Purposeful Systems, 9. Feelings and Communication, 10. Signs, Messages, and Language, 11. Models of Communication, 12. Conflict, Cooperation, and Competition, IV. Social Systems and Beyond, 13. Social Groups as Systems, 14. Ideal-Seeking Systems, 15. Epilogue: Rounding the Conceptual Circle, Appendix I, Appendix II, Appendix III, Name Index, Subject Index

About the Author

Fred Emery

Reviews

"What makes this book 'magical' is that Ackoff provides 'operational definitions' for many ill-defined words and concepts - from defining 'knowledge' and 'understanding' to providing definitions of feelings/emotions.... In terms of Kuhn's idea of 'paradigm shifts' - this book represents a shift that has yet to be appreciated, thirty years later." - W. Curtiss Priest, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"