ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the main achievement in understanding nature in the last century, cognition of the universal principle of organizing and existing reality, and its systemic character. This means that every distinctive item or event existing or happening in reality is a system consisting of parts that are connected in a specific manner and are a part of a larger system(s). Therefore, all information about any system may be presented in three models: (1) “black box” model — a list of connections of the system with its environment (inputs and outputs), (2) model of composition — a list of parts of the system, and (3) model of structure — a list of connections between the parts. Inputs represent the flow of resources into the system, and outputs represent the production of the system (goods or services, things or functions). All system properties are classified into three types: static, dynamic, and synthetic. The difficulties of constructing each model of a system are discussed in detail.
