ABSTRACT
As Bunge argues, regrettably, talk of social systems evokes some embarrassing memories, namely the holistic excesses and verbal acrobatics of Hegel and, closer to us, those of Talcott Parsons and his followers, in particular Niklas Luhmann, Jrgen Habermas, David Easton, and Ervin Lszl. In another context, Tilly laments that although "system explanations have lost ground in sociology since the days of Pitirim Sorokin and Talcott Parsons they still figure prominently in some sorts of organizational analysis and demography. According to Luhmann, his systems theory manages to replace the distinction between whole and part with that between system and environment. Conceptual systems and semiotic systems have compositions, environments, structures, but no mechanisms. Incidentally, Heylighen, Cillers and Gershenson are egregiously mistaken to write that 'the Anglo-Saxon tradition of analytic' philosophy, by its very focus on analysing problems into their logical components, is inimical to the holism, uncertainty and subjectivity entailed by complexity.
