The Linkage between Systems Thinking and Ethics

Abstract

In order to understand the linkages between systems thinking and ethics it is important to first understand the five systems domains that together configure our reality. We work to do so by using science to identify their characteristics. The first and by far the largest of these domains includes what we will call non-living natural systems such as the universe, our solar system, ocean currents, weather, the changing seasons. The challenge addressed by science is to understanding these natural systems by breaking each down in order to define its parts and the interactions of these parts as well as the interactions between the system as a whole with the larger system of which it is a part.