Posted on November 15, 1999

levels of organization

Back ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Send comments to review committee. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Forward

Note from Ty Partridge to

New England Complex Systems Insititute

Some of the earliest references to the concept of integrative levels were put forth by Needham in his book the Skeptical Biologist (1929) as well as in discussions by Woodger in his Biological Principles (1929). However, Novikoff and Fiebleman were among the first to clearly formulate this concept. Novikoff described the levels concept as follows:

"The concept of integrative levels of organization is a general description of the evolution of matter through successive and higher orders of complexity and integration. It views the development of matter, from the cosmological changes resulting in the formation of the earth to the social changes in society, as continuous because it is never-ending, and as discontinuous because it passes through a series of different levels of organization -- physical, chemical, biological, and sociological."

In 1954 Fiebleman tried to "formalize" the levels concept by outlining several qualitative "laws":

  • 1. All substances and processes in the unverse can be organized into hierarchical levels based on differential integration and complexity.
  • 2. Each level is composed of parts, and it is the specific nature of the integration of these parts that comprise the whole.
  • 3. These differential integrations of parts are the result of evolution.
  • 4. The development of levels is a function of the aggregation of quantitative changes on the lower level that result in a qualitative emergence of the new, higher level; thus, while the process of change on a large scale is continuous, at the point of emergence it is discontinuous.
  • 5. Most important, one can neither understand, nor predict the functioning of processes and phenomena at the higher level from knowledge of the lower level alone. (1)
These formulations capture the basic notion, but by current standards are a bit vague. Most of my work has focused on both applying these ideas to the study of behavioral development and in further refining them by drawing on concepts from complex systems research.

Ty Partridge

Note from BCN Group Director, on the concept of the Bead Game. (1) (2)

External ULRs

Stealing the Fire by Dan Moonhawk Alford (need the URL)

Across the Scales of Time: Arrtifacts, Activities and Meanings in Ecosocial Systems by Jay Lemke (also need the URL)

Note from Bead master, quantum neuropsychology in support of the notion of integrative levels of organization. (1) (2) (3)