Philosophy underlies the distinction in the three volumes of the Tavistock Anthology: founded on the World Hypotheses of Stephen C. Pepper, the Socio-Psychological Systems Perspective and the Socio-Technical Systems Perspectives are based on Organicism, while the Socio-Ecological Systems Perspective is based on Contextualism.
This thread on contextualism can be traced from the association between E.C. Tolman and Pepper in 1934, through the publication by Emery & Trist in 1965.
Fred Emery, in the edited paperback on Systems Thinking: Selected Readings (1969), cites World Hypotheses (1942) as a precedent to systems theory. Stephen C. Pepper described the four Relatively Adequate World Hypotheses as two treatments with polarities, that can be structured into a 2-by-2 matrix, shown in Table 1.
| World Hypothesis | Dispersive | Integrative |
| Analytic |
Formism
Root metaphor:
Similarity, as a recurrence of recognizable features
|
Mechanism
Root metaphor:
Machine, where exerting force or energy produces predictable outcomes |
| Synthetic |
Contextualism
Root metaphor:
Situation, as a historic event in its living actuality |
Organicism
Root metaphor:
Constructive development, with orderliness of changes from stage to stage
|
Pepper named four distinct world hypotheses with unfamiliar names, and coupled them loosely with prior philosophical schools. With each world theory, a root metaphor is induced.
- Formism is associated with realism, and the idealism of Plato and Aristotle. Its root metaphor is similarity.
- Mechanism is associated with naturalism or materialism, with philosophers such as Rene Descartes, John Locke, and David Hume.
Philosophy underlies the distinction in the three volumes of the Tavistock Anthology: founded on the World Hypotheses of Stephen C. Pepper, the Socio-Psychological Systems Perspective and the Socio-Technical Systems Perspectives are based on Organicism, while the Socio-Ecological Systems Perspective is based on Contextualism.
This thread on contextualism can be traced from the association between E.C. Tolman and Pepper in 1934, through the publication by Emery & Trist in 1965.
Fred Emery, in the edited paperback on Systems Thinking: Selected Readings (1969), cites World Hypotheses (1942) as a precedent to systems theory. Stephen C. Pepper described the four Relatively Adequate World Hypotheses as two treatments with polarities, that can be structured into a 2-by-2 matrix, shown in Table 1.
| World Hypothesis | Dispersive | Integrative |
| Analytic |
Formism
Root metaphor:
Similarity, as a recurrence of recognizable features
|
Mechanism
Root metaphor:
Machine, where exerting force or energy produces predictable outcomes |
| Synthetic |
Contextualism
Root metaphor:
Situation, as a historic event in its living actuality |
Organicism
Root metaphor:
Constructive development, with orderliness of changes from stage to stage
|
Pepper named four distinct world hypotheses with unfamiliar names, and coupled them loosely with prior philosophical schools. With each world theory, a root metaphor is induced.
- Formism is associated with realism, and the idealism of Plato and Aristotle. Its root metaphor is similarity.
- Mechanism is associated with naturalism or materialism, with philosophers such as Rene Descartes, John Locke, and David Hume.
