ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an appropriate foundation for understanding systems. Understanding the axioms and propositions that underlie all systems is mandatory for developing a universally accepted construct for systems theory. While likely incomplete, this set of propositions provides a representation of real-world systems encountered during people work with systems problems. The Information Axiom states that systems create, possess, transfer, and modify information. The information axiom provides understanding of how information affects systems. Systems theory is the unified group of propositions, linked with the aim of achieving understanding of systems. The Contextual Axiom states that system meaning is informed by the circumstances and factors that surround the system. The contextual axiom’s propositions are those which bound the system by providing guidance that enables an investigator to understand the set of external circumstances or factors that enable or constrain a particular system.
