Charles West Churchman (29 August 1913 – 21 March 2004 Bolinas, California.) was an American philosopher and systems scientist, who was Professor at the School of Business Administration and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is internationally known for his pioneering work in operations research, system analysis and ethics.[1]
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Biography
Churchman was born in Philadelphia in 1913, Pennsylvania, to Clark Wharton Churchman and Helen Norah Fassitt, descendents of old line Philadelphia families. His first intellectual love was for philosophy and this far-ranging love for wisdom captivated him to the end of his life.[2] He studied philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1935, a master's in 1936, and a PhD in 1938, all in philosophy. One of his teachers was Edgar A. Singer, who had been a student at Harvard of the philosopher and psychologist William James.
Before completing his dissertation, in 1937, he became Instructor of Philosophy, also at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon finishing his degree, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the University. During World War II, Churchman headed the mathematical section of the U.S. Ordnance Laboratory at the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia and devised a way to test small arms ammunition and detonators based on the statistical methods of bioassay.[1] He also investigated the theory of detonation, applying high-speed photography. In 1945, back in Pennsylvania he was elected Chairman of the Department of Philosophy. In 1951, Churchman moved to the Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio, and until 1957 he was Professor of Engineering Administration at Case. In 1957, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley and remained there until his retirement.
During 1946-1954, he served as the secretary and program chairman of the American Philosophy of Science Association. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Churchman was a founding member of TIMS, now INFORMS, and served as its ninth president in 1962. In 1989, Churchman was elected president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences.
Churchman edited the journal Philosophy of Science for a long period beginning in 1948. He also served as the first editor-in-chief of the journal Management Science in 1954.
Churchman’s honors include the Academy of Management’s Best Book in Management Award and the McKinsey Book Award, both in 1968.[3] His work was further honored through three honorary doctorates given to him by the Washington University in St. Louis in 1975, the University of Lund, Sweden in 1984, and the Umeå University, Sweden in 1986. In 1983, Churchman received the Berkeley Citation, one of the campus's highest awards. In 1999 he received the LEO Award for Lifetime Exceptional Achievement in Information Systems.
Churchman has been cited by Noam Chomsky as the only professor from whom he learned anything as an undergraduate. European students of C. West Churchman are Werner Ulrich and Kristo Ivanov who developed his work in related fields[4] and contributed to its diffusion in Europe.
Work
Churchman made significant contributions in the fields of management science, operations research and systems theory. During a career spanning six decades, Churchman investigated a vast range of topics such as accounting, research and development management, city planning, education, mental health, space exploration, education, and peace and conflict studies.[1]
See also
- Boundary critique
- Noam Chomsky
- Co-Design
- Formal science
- Debora Hammond
- Werner Ulrich
- Kristo Ivanov
- Umeå University
- Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Publications
Churchman wrote some 15 books and edited another 9 books:[5]
- 1938, Towards a General Logic of Propositions, Ph.D. Dissertation.
- 1940, Elements of Logic and Formal Science, J.B. Lippincott Co., New York.
- 1940, Euclid Vindicated of Every Blemish, Translator, Saccheri's.
- 1946, Psychologistics, with Russell L. Ackoff.
- 1948, Theory of Experimental Inference, Macmillan Publishers, New York.
- 1950, Methods of Inquiry: Introduction to Philosophy and Scientific Method, with Russell L. Ackoff, Educational Publications, St. Louis, Missouri, Missouri.
- 1956, Costs, Utilities, and Values, Sections I and II.
- 1957, Introduction to Operations Research, with Russell L. Ackoff & E.L. Arnoff, J. Wiley and Sons, New York.
- 1960, Prediction and Optimal Decision, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
- 1968, Challenge to Reason, McGraw-Hill, New York.
- 1968, The Systems Approach, Delacorte Press, New York.
- 1971, The Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Concepts of Systems and Organizations, Basic Books, New York.
- 1975, Thinking for Decisions: Deductive Quantitative Methods, Science Research Associates, Chicago, Illinois.
- 1979, The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, Basic Books, New York.
- 1982, Thought and Wisdom; The Gaither Lectures, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, California.
Books edited by C.West Churchman.
- 1947, Measurement of Consumer Interest, ed. with Russell L. AcKoff , and M. Wax.
- 1959, Measurement: Definitions and Theories, ed. with P. Ratoosh.
- 1959, Experience and Reflection by Edgar A. Singer, Jr., ed.
- 1960, Management Sciences, ed. with M. Verhulst.
- 1975, Systems and Management Annual 1975, ed.
- 1976, Design Methods and Theories, ed.
- 1976, World Modelling: A Dialogue, ed. with R.O. Mason.
- 1984, Natural Resources Administration: Introducing a New Methodology for Management Development, ed. with A.H. Rosenthal, and S.H. Smith.
- 1989, The Well-Being of Organizations, ed.
References
- ^ a b c Kathleen Maclay (2004). "C. West Churchman dies", UC Berkeley Press Release, 31 March 2004. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
- ^ Richard O. Mason (2004), "IFORS’ Operational Research Hall of Fame : C. West Churchman" in: Intl. Trans. in Op. Res. Vol 11 pp 585–588
- ^ C. West Churchman, Ninth President of TIMS 1962, retrieved 22 October 2007.
- ^ For an extension of Churchman's concepts to philosophy of science in general and informatics or computer science in particular, see Kristo Ivanov (2002), Index to The Design of Inquiring Systems. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ An overview of his articles is given in: Werner Ulrich (2006), A Bibliography of C.W. Churchman's Writings from 1938 to 2001. Werner Ulrich's Home Page: C.W. Churchman. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
External links
- Ethics and Sustainability Forum
- Appreciation of Churchman by Werner Ulrich.
- C. West Churchman -- groundbreaking philosopher Obituary Notice Extract, by Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer, Thursday, March 25, 2004.
An Appreciation of C. West Churchman
(With a Bibliography from 1938 to 2001 and a Postscript of 5 March 2006)
Contributed by Werner Ulrich, 29 August 1999 (last updated 4 Nov 2009)
Page history: This contribution was first published in the “Luminaries” section of the ISSS web site on 29 August 1999 (original URL: http://www.isss.org/lumCWC.htm). The page was reformatted and relocated to the present URL in January 2005. The main text has remained unchanged since the original publication, except for minor editorial corrections, biographic updates, etc. An Author's Postscript was added on 5 March 2006. References and links are regularly checked and, where necessary, updated; the last such update is of 04 November 2009.
Suggested form of citation: “Ulrich, W. (1999), An appreciation of C. West Churchman (with a bibliography from 1938 to 2001 and a postscript of 5 March 2006). Luminaries of the Systems Approach, Web site of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, http://projects.isss.org/c_west_churchman (last updated 4 November 2009).”
Contact: Werner Ulrich
C. West Churchman (born on 29 August 1913 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; deceased on 21 March 2004 in Bolinas, California) is probably the most influential philosopher of the systems movement thus far. A founding father of the systems approach as well as the fields of operations research and management science, he represents a rare case of a pioneer who never allowed himself to become absorbed by the mainstream of his colleagues.
Intellectual Honesty
The systems idea, provided we take it seriously, urges us to recognize our constant failure to think and act rationally in a comprehensive sense. Mainstream systems literature somehow always manages to have us forget the fact that a lack of comprehensive rationality is inevitably part of the conditio humana; most authors seek to demonstrate how and why their systems approaches extend the bounds of rational explanation or design accepted in their fields. West Churchman never does. To him, the systems idea poses a challenge to critical self-reflection. It compels him to raise fundamental epistemological and ethical issues concerning the systems planner's claim to rationality. He never pretends to have the answers; instead, he asks himself and his readers a lot of thoroughly puzzling questions.
I think West has well described the challenge posed by the systems idea in a passage of his book Challenge to Reason (1968a, p. 2):
“How can we design improvement in large systems without understanding the whole system, and if we the answer is that we cannot, how is it possible to understand the whole system?”
I remember very well the intellectual excitement I felt when I first read this question. Finally I found a key to an adequate understanding of the systems idea! It was then, in 1972, that I began to capture the real challenge posed by the systems idea: its message is not that in order to be rational we need to be omniscient but, rather, that we must learn to deal critically with the fact that we never are. What matters is not “knowing everything” about the system in question but understanding the reasons and possible implications of our inevitable lack of comprehensive knowledge. It is because we never know enough that understanding, i.e., critical judgment, becomes essential – not only from an intellectual but also from a moral point of view. Uncertainty about the whole systems implications of our actions does not dispense us from moral responsibility; hence, “the problem of systems improvement is the problem of the 'ethics of the whole system'.” (Churchman 1968a, p. 4)
West's question was an incisive event in my academic life. Never again the systems approach would be the same as before. As Immanuel Kant (1783, p. A190) noted in a famous remark, “he who has once tasted critique will for ever loathe all the dogmatic twaddle with which he was hitherto contented. . . .” Very much in the same way, once I had sensed the intellectual fascination and moral spirit of West's fundamental question, it never again let me return to my previous, “precritical,” understanding of the systems idea. Soon after, I was to meet West – along with Erich Jantsch and Sir Geoffrey Vickers – at the 1972 International Management Symposium in St. Gallen, Switzerland. From then on, I had a new project for the time after my doctoral dissertation: I wanted to work with West Churchman! In 1976, a research scholarship of the Swiss National Science Foundation enabled me to move to the University of California at Berkeley and to become West's disciple.
One of the excitements in working with West during almost five years was to discover the man behind the systems philosopher: an academic teacher of rare intellectual honesty and modesty, a man of deep moral concern, and a friend of great personal warmth. West's spirit comes across well in the H. Rowan Gaither Lectures in systems science he presented to the University of California at Berkeley in May 1981. There he summarized his life-long philosophical quest in a way that everybody who knows him will recognize as an accurate description:
“The design of my philosophical life is based on an examination of the following question: is it possible to secure improvement in the human condition by means of the human intellect? The verb 'to secure' is (for me) terribly important, because problem solving often appears to produce improvement, but the so-called 'solution' often makes matters worse in the larger system (e.g., the many food programs of the last quarter century may well have made world-wide starvation even worse than no food programs would have done.) The verb 'to secure' means that in the larger system over time the improvement persists. I have to admit that the philosophical question is much more difficult than my very limited intellect can handle. I don't know what 'human condition' and 'human intellect' mean, though I've done my best to tap the wisdom of such diverse fields as depth psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, public health, management science, education, literature, and history. But to me the essence of philosophy is to pose serious and meaningful questions that are too difficult for any of us to answer in our lifetimes. Wisdom, or the love of wisdom, is just that: thought likes solutions, wisdom abhors them.” (Churchman 1982b, p. 19f)
Moral Outrage
I suspect that the ultimate impetus for Churchman's relentless quest for comprehensiveness is of a moral rather than of a scholarly nature. “It would be a good thing,” West avows in Thought and Wisdom, “if the systems planner's germination was moral outrage and not just a mild felt need. In other words, I do not think we should view the major problems of the world today with calm objectivity. We shouldn't first ask ourselves for a precise and operational definition of malnutrition. We should begin with 'kids are starving in great numbers, damn it all!'” (Churchman 1982b, p. 17)
Indeed, must we not regard it as a scandal of systems philosophy that planning under the guise of “systems design,” just as any other use of the human intellect to improve the human condition, appears to create ever more new problems – the ecological crisis, the threat of nuclear self-destruction, the dangers of genetic engineering, etc. – while failing to solve the old ones, e.g., poverty, malnutrition, overpopulation, war, etc.? It is true, thought can demonstrate why this is so (as West has done so often with the example of the inventory problem): namely, because “in any specific problem one finds the connectedness to all the other problems” (Churchman, 1982b, p. 13). This overwhelming connectedness of problems forces systems designers, no less than any other planners, to content themselves with partial solutions that consider only a limited number of whole systems implications – usually those of interest to the involved decision makers. But thought cannot turn that which is normal into an ethically justified norm. It cannot, for instance, excuse our morally outrageous indifference to worldwide starvation, our very prevalent lack of concern for future generations, or our tolerance of war. As West would insist, we cannot, by complaining about the overwhelming connectedness of the world, escape our responsibility for the poor and hungry whom we let suffer, or for the future generations whose options we confine today. Whether we want it or not, the connectedness of the world makes us responsible for the whole-systems implications of our bounded systems rationality.
Churchman accepts this moral consequence of the systems idea, despite the difficulties it causes him as a philosopher of planning. Thus it is only natural that he would like to see many more systems scientists and planners feeling moral outrage at the common acceptance of bounded systems thinking – not because he thinks moral outrage can or should replace intellectual effort, but because it is apt to help us break through the commonly accepted bounds of systems rationality.
For West Churchman, such moral outrage renders systems thinking – the attempt to understand the world we live in in terms of whole systems – an inescapable obligation to every planner or manager, if not to every active subject. The systems idea is thus not a merely theoretical idea; rather, it embodies an unavoidable moral challenge to all people of good faith.
Professional Career
If Professor Churchman had written his intellectual autobiography, its title might be Against the Stream. And its subtitle might read: Untimely Reflections of a Systems Philosopher. His many writings are almost all an expression and result of his lifelong struggle to swim against the stream of the prevailing methodological and epistemological tendencies in the applied disciplines, e.g., their ever-growing specialization and fragmentation in spite of the common lip service paid to the ideas of interdisciplinarity and comprehensiveness; their inherent positivism and reductionism; incrementalism; a merely functionalistic and instrumental understanding of rationality that leaves no room for ethical considerations; and perhaps worst, the uncritical stance of most disciplines with respect to these tendencies and their repercussions on the social practice that they claim to improve.
I say “most” because, happily, there are exceptions. It is certainly not by chance that the two fields of inquiry that Churchman has helped to shape, operations research/ management science and the systems approach, today belong to those applied disciplines which are most aware of the limitations and shortcomings of their underlying paradigms and which hence seek to open themselves up to new horizons. Although a pioneer of both fields, Churchman has also been one of their most thorough critics, never ceasing to work at the limits of their established paradigms.
If it was his moral outrage at the failure of the applied sciences to secure improvement which made him be so critical, it was his training in logic and in philosophical pragmatism which made him a critic of rare clear-sightedness and consequence. Churchman originally studied philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (BA in Philosophy, 1935; MA in Philosophy, 1936). His doctoral thesis of 1938 was Toward a General Logic of Propositions. At Pennsylvania University he also began his career of half a century of academic teaching and writing. Already before completing his dissertation, in 1937, he became Instructor of Philosophy; in 1939, he was appointed Assistant Professor; in 1945, the young Assistant Professor was elected Chairman of the Department of Philosophy.
His two chief philosophical teachers and mentors at the University of Pennsylvania were Edgar A. Singer, Jr., who had been a student of the well-known exponent of American pragmatism, William James, and Henry Bradford Smith, who himself had been a student of Singer. Singer's pragmatic stance never allowed him to understand philosophy as a merely theoretical enterprise; rather, philosophy to him was an intellectual effort to improve social practice.
We can recognize the same pragmatic stance in Churchman's earlier-quoted basic question, which he often used to begin his courses, “How can we secure improvement of the human condition by means of the intellect?” I think this is indeed the fundamental question of all practical philosophy. Most practical philosophers manage to theorize on this question without ever trying to practice practical philosophy. For them, practical philosophy appears to mean just another ecological niche of philosophical speculation. Not so for West Churchman. A pragmatic understanding of philosophy means for him that the philosopher must leave the ivory tower and practice philosophy as applied philosophy. His goal must be to bring philosophical reflection into the world of practice.
Hence, it becomes understandable why a philosophically minded spirit such as Churchman was to spend most of his career outside of philosophy departments. During World War II he was a mathematical statistician at the Frankford Arsenal of the U.S. Army in Philadelphia, working on experimental methods of testing small arms ammunition. Back at the University of Pennsylvania, he and Russell L. Ackoff, his first doctoral student, tried to establish the “Institute of Experimental Method,” in an effort to apply E.A. Singer's “experimentalist” philosophy to societal issues such as problems of city planning, management, education, and others. However, the Philosophy Department did not appreciate this effort to practice philosophy as an applied discipline. The Institute could not be founded formally. Ackoff's teaching appointment was not renewed. In 1948, Churchman resigned his chairmanship of the department and accepted an appointment as Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit, where Ackoff had gone the year before as an assistant professor. Again the Institute could not be founded, despite earlier promises of support. Churchman and Ackoff had to realize that they could not do what they wanted to do within philosophy departments. (For personal accounts of these years, see Ackoff, 1988, and Churchman, 1990.)
Thus, these early efforts to practice philosophy as an applied discipline within philosophy departments were soon to be followed by academic appointments and mandates in other fields. In 1951, Churchman and Ackoff moved to the Department of Engineering Administration at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1951 to 1957, Churchman was Professor of Engineering Administration at Case. Finally, he and Ackoff could do what they wanted to do. They organized the first multi-disciplinary faculty group in operations research, the Case O.R. Group; they designed the first graduate program in operations research offering Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees, a curriculum that was later adopted by many other universities; they introduced regular short courses in O.R. for industry; and they started a series of annual O.R. conferences. (For a report on the Case years by a former member of the Case O.R. Group, see Dean, 1994.)
In 1958, Churchman was offered the position of Professor of Business Administration in the Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of California at Berkeley, where he had previously spent a visiting year. He remained there until his retirement in 1981. During that time he founded Berkeley's graduate program in operations research and helped establish the Center for Research in Management Science (now Center for Research in Management). Many additional appointments outside of the Business School made sure the field he had chosen for practicing applied philosophy did not become a new ivory tower. Just to mention a few, from 1962 to 1963 he served as a research director of System Development Corporation. In 1963, he was appointed Research Philosopher and Associate Director at the Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley, where he directed the Social Sciences Program. Other engagements included teaching mandates in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program of the Graduate Division of UCB and in other Universities as well as consulting mandates with commercial corporations, non-profit organizations, and government agencies, among them the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Department of Energy, the Texas Energy Council, the Office of Education, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, World Malnutrition (USAID), and others. After his retirement, he continued to teach at UCB as a Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies until 1996.
Professor Churchman's immense contribution – the extraordinary scope and impact of his work – was honored, among other distinctions, through three honorary doctorates given to him by the Washington University of St. Louis (1975), the University of Lund, Sweden (1984), and Umeå University, Sweden (1986).
Publications
Let us now turn to some of Churchman's major academic publications during these years. The first work to be mentioned, apart from the earlier-mentioned dissertation (Churchman 1938), is probably Psychologistics, a manuscript he co-authored with his then doctoral student R.L. Ackoff (Churchman and Ackoff 1946). It aimed to provide a general framework for the social sciences based on E.A. Singer's theory of purposive behavior. A summary of this early effort can be found in Churchman's (1961) book, Prediction and Optimal Decision (Ch. 7); an extensive revision was later published by Ackoff and F.E. Emery (1972) as On Purposeful Systems. For an introduction to this theoretical framework and its philosophical root, Singer's “experimentalism” or nonrelativistic pragmatism, see, e.g., Singer (1959), Churchman (1971, Ch. 9; 1982a), and Britton and Mc Callion (1994); a short review of the philosophical core concepts can be found in Ulrich (2004a, 204-207, and 2004b, 1125-1127).
During these early years in the Philosophy Departments of Pennsylvania and Wayne Universities, Churchman also wrote his early masterpiece, Theory of Experimental Inference (1948), and another book authored jointly with Russ Ackoff, Methods of Inquiry (1950). Especially Theory brought the young philosopher wide recognition in the philosophical community. It provided the philosophical foundation for the later pioneering work in operations research. The book provided a new framework for a theory of applied science based on the philosophy of pragmatism; it also offered essential reflections on the experimental method, particularly concerning the importance and problems of metrology (theory of measurement) and of statistical inference. It showed that there could be no single “best” model of science – an insight to which the analytical philosophers and critical rationalists of that time had hardly advanced.
Although acclaimed by the philosophical community, the book stood alone against the mainstream tendency toward analytical philosophy. The American philosophical community honored it not by taking up its argument but by entrusting its author with the editorship of its prestigious journal, Philosophy of Science. From 1948 to 1958, Churchman served as it editor-in-chief.
After moving to Case together with Ackoff, Churchman began his pioneering work in operations research. The earlier-mentioned activities led to the publication of the field's first textbook, Introduction to Operations Research, together with Ackoff and E.L. Arnoff (1957). The book introduced O.R. as an interdisciplinary, team based, “application of scientific methods, techniques, and tools to problems involving the operations of a system” (p. 8f and 18). It strongly emphasized the necessity of avoiding any one-sided reliance on specific techniques or tools (e.g., of modeling), so as to maintain “an openness of mind about techniques, together with a broad knowledge of their usefulness and an appreciation of the over-all problem” (p. 12). Furthermore, as the programmatic title of the second chapter proposed, O.R. should be “the study of a system as a whole” (p. 20). At least one third of the text deals with philosophical and methodological aspects of such an interdisciplinary approach to real-world problem solving. But the book's success in promoting operations research as a new academic field had paradoxical consequences. The field rapidly developed into a highly technical discipline; the majority of its practitioners no longer thought of it in terms of interdisciplinary social science or even applied philosophy but, rather, of mathematical modeling.
Events somehow repeated themselves: the OR/MS community, as the field was now generally called (operations research/ management science), acknowledged and honored its pioneer but did not really hear him. In 1954, Churchman became the first editor (from 1955, editor-in-chief) of the field's leading journal (which he had helped to establish), Management Science; a post that he held until 1960. In 1962, he served as President of TIMS, the Institute of Management Science; in 1963, as its Council Chairman.
During these years he began, for the second time in his career, to swim against the stream of his colleagues. Turning back to his original intentions and hopes as a pragmatic philosopher, he sought to open the field up to the ethical dimension. In his difficult book of 1961, Prediction and Optimal Decision: Philosophical Issues of a Science of Values, he struggled to gain a basis for the scientific (I would today rather say: rational) consideration of value judgments in applied science. This effort produced more questions than the book could possibly have answered, but I think it, nonetheless, provided a necessary bridge to his later work.
In the sixties, Churchman took the step from operations research to the “systems approach.” As with operations research before, he wanted the systems approach to be understood as an effort of applied philosophy. There he was out again swimming against the stream of the day, against those true believers in The New Science of Management Decision (Herbert A. Simon, 1960; cf. Churchman, 1970, and Ulrich, 1980) who thought that the new tools of systems engineering, RAND systems analysis, PPBS (project planning and budgeting system), etc., would finally turn the art of decision making, whether in the private and in the public sector, into a question of technique.
In 1968, Churchman presented two important books: Challenge to Reason (1968a) and The Systems Approach (1968b). The first book offers a philosophical discussion of the question quoted at the beginning of this appreciation, “How can we design improvement in large systems without understanding the whole system . . . ?” In spite of its philosophical nature, this book was distinguished by the American Academy of Management as one of the “best books in management of the year 1968” – truly a distinction for an author who seeks to practice philosophy as an applied discipline! The second book was to become the most popular of Churchman's books; over 200,000 copies have been sold. It, too, received a prestigious award, namely, the Mc Kinsey Book Award as one of the best management books of the year.
The year 1971 was to see the publication of yet another important book, The Design of Inquiring Systems. It is one of the more difficult books by Churchman, but perhaps it is also his most original one. In my understanding, the book represents another approach of Churchman's to his fundamental question of how it is possible to secure improvement by means of the intellect. Improvement implies learning; can systems design secure learning? Churchman's idea was to look at different epistemologies that the history of philosophy has brought forth as designs for inquiring systems, i.e., systems that would be capable of learning. What can we learn from Leibniz, Locke, Kant, Hegel, and Edgar A. Singer about the possibilities and limitations of designing systems that could secure improvement?
As a stepping stone to discovering the inherent limitations of design, Churchman employed the question of “whether it is possible to tell a computer how to design an inquiring system” – not because he was eager to contribute to the development of artificial intelligence, but, rather, because this question helps “to discover what in the research process is truly the 'lonely' part, the part that cannot be designed, at least relative to a standard computer” (p. 6). I can mention only one basic finding of this very rich book: each design is bound to remain incomplete in respect of at least one crucial aspect. None can validate by itself all the conditions that would secure learning. Hence, it is always a relevant question for systems designers to ask what is a design's supposed “guarantor of design,” i.e., Where are its built-in sources of deception? (For a more extensive discussion, see Ulrich, 1985.)
The theme of a “theory of deception” appears essential to me for a critical understanding of the systems idea. It was originally advanced in The Systems Approach:
“The ultimate meaning of the systems approach, therefore, lies in the creation of a theory of deception and in a fuller understanding of the ways in which the human being can be deceived about his world. . . .” (p. 229f)
In his next major book, The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (1979), Churchman again took up this theme, though in quite a different way. Since no single viewpoint, no particular design for improvement can ever claim to be able to secure improvement, systems designers must not misunderstand the systems idea as a guarantor of comprehensive rationality. This is not to say that the quest for comprehensive rationality is irrelevant, as scholars such as Karl R. Popper, Friedrich A. Hayek, Herbert A. Simon, Robert A. Dahl, and Charles E. Lindblom have argued. It means, rather, that the systems approach is not well advised if it treats as “irrational” those citizens who, because they may be affected by its results, contest its rationality. Their kind of rationality may be the “private,” subjective rationality of politics, morality, religion, or aesthetics, but they share with the whole-systems rationality of the systems approach a common failure to be comprehensive. Hence, what the systems designer needs beyond ever new analytical techniques is a dialectical framework that would enable him to enter into a discourse with these other rationalities and to learn to understand them as what they are: mirrors of his failure to live up to the systems idea (Ulrich, 1994, p. 34). In the Enemies, the systems approach for the first time has become truly self-reflective with respect to the value content of its seemingly value-neutral quest for systems rationality.
Churchman's latest single-authored book is Thought and Wisdom (1982b). This is probably his most personal book. It offers a self-reflective account of his thinking and his never-ending concern for issues such as poverty and malnutrition, environmental protection, future generations, and peace. I recommend the book to everyone who wishes to gain a fuller picture than I can provide here of this grand old man of the systems movement.
I also recommend consulting the two special issues of systems journals that have appeared in West Churchman's honor:
- C. West Churchman – 75 Years. Systems Practice, Vol. 1, No. 4, December 1988 (edited by Werner Ulrich).
- In Celebration of C. West Churchman's 80 Years. Special Section in Interfaces, Vol. 24, No. 4, July-August 1994 (edited by Ernest Koenigsberg and John P. van Gigch).
Finally, readers may like to see the “Tribute to C. West Churchman” section of the author's home page, visit: http://www.wulrich.com/cwc.html (open access).
References mentioned in the essay
Ackoff, R.L., and Emery, F.E. (1972). On Purposeful Systems. Tavistock Publications, London.
Ackoff, R.L. (1988). C. West Churchman. Systems Practice, 1, 351-355.
Britton, G.A., and Mc Callion, H. (1994). An overview of the Singer/ Churchman/ Ackoff school of thought. Systems Practice, 7, 487-521.
Dean, B.V. (1994). West Churchman and operations research: Case Institute of Technology, 1951-1957. Interfaces, 24, 5-15.
Churchman, C. W. (1938). Towards a General Logic of Propositions, Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn.
Churchman, C. W. (1948). Theory of Experimental Inference, Macmillan, New York.
Churchman, C. W. (1961). Prediction and Optimal Decision: Philosophical Issues of a Science of Values, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Churchman, C. W. (1968a). Challenge to Reason, Mc Graw-Hill, New York.
Churchman, C. W. (1968b). The Systems Approach, Delacorte Press, New York. Paperback edition Dell Publishing, New York, 1969, second, revised ed. 1979.
Churchman, C. W. (1970). The artificiality of science, review of Herbert A. Simon's book “The Sciences of the Artificial.” Contemporary Psychology, A Journal of Reviews, 15, 385-386.
Churchman, C. W. (1971). The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organization, Basic Books, New York.
Churchman, C.W. (1979). The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, Basic Books, New York.
Churchman, C.W. (1982). An appreciation of Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr. In C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., Ch. 10, 116-135.
Churchman, C.W. (1982b). Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif.
Churchman, C.W. (1990). Ackoff comes of age. Systems Practice, 3, 125-130.
Churchman, C.W., and Ackoff, R.L. (1946). Psychologistics, mimeographed, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Penn. Revised ed., mimeographed, University of Pennsylvania Faculty Research Fund, Philadelphia, Penn., 1947.
Churchman, C.W., and Ackoff, R.L. (1950). Methods of Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy and Scientific Method, Educational Publishers, St. Louis, Missouri.
Churchman, C.W., Ackoff, R.L., and Arnoff, L.E. (1957). Introduction to Operations Research, Wiley, New York.
Kant, I. (1783). Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, first ed. (A), transl. by P. Carus, rev. by L.W. Beck, Liberal Arts Press, New York, 1951.
Simon, H.A. (1960). The New Science of Management Decision, Harper & Row, New York.
Singer, E.A., Jr. (1959). Experience and Reflection, ed. by C.W. Churchman, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Penn.
Ulrich, W. (1980). The metaphysics of design: a Simon-Churchman “debate.” Interfaces, 10, No. 2, 35-40.
Ulrich, W. (1985). The way of inquiring systems, review of The Design of Inquiring Systems by C.W. Churchman. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 36, 873-876.
Ulrich, W. (1994). Critical Heuristics of Social Planning: A New Approach to Practical Philosophy. Wiley, New York. (Original edition Haupt Academic Publishers, Bern, Switzerland, 1983.)
Ulrich, W. (2004a). In memory of C. West Churchman (1913-2004): reminiscences, retrospectives, and reflections. Organisational Transformation and Social Change, 1, No. 2/3, 2004, 199-219.
Ulrich, W. (2004b). Obituary: C. West Churchman, 1913-2004. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 55, No. 11 (Nov.), 2004, 1123-1129.
Bibliography of C. West Churchman's Writings From 1938 to 2001
a) Selected Books
Towards a General Logic of Propositions, Ph.D. Dissertation, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1938.
Elements of Logic and Formal Science, Lippincott, New York, 1940.
Psychologistics. Mimeographed, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1946 (with R.L. Ackoff). Revised ed., mimeographed, University of Pennsylvania Faculty Research Fund, Philadelphia, 1947.
Measurement of Consumer Interest, ed. by C.W. Churchman, R.L. Ackoff, and M. Wax, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1947.
Theory of Experimental Inference, Macmillan, New York, 1948.
Methods of Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy and Scientific Method, Educational Publishers, St. Louis, Missouri, 1950 (with R.L. Ackoff).
Introduction to Operations Research, Wiley, New York, 1957 (with R.L. Ackoff and E.L. Arnoff).
Experience and Reflection by Edgar A. Singer, Jr., ed. by C.W Churchman, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1959.
Measurement: Definitions and Theories, ed. by C.W. Churchman and P. Ratoosh, Wiley, New York, 1959.
Management Sciences: Models and Techniques, ed. by C.W. Churchman and M. Verhulst, Pergamon, New York, 1960.
Prediction and Optimal Decision: Philosophical Issues of a Science of Values, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1961.
Challenge to Reason, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, 1968.
The Systems Approach, Delacorte Press, New York, 1968. Paperback edition Dell Publishing, New York, 1969, second, revised ed. 1979.
The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organization, Basic Books, New York, 1971. Systems and Management Annual 1975, ed. by C.W. Churchman, Petrocelli/ Charter, New York, 1975.
Thinking for Decisions: Deductive Quantitative Methods, ed. by C.W. Churchman, L. Auerbach, and S. Sadan, Science Research Associates, Chicago, Ill., 1975.
The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, Basic Books, New York, 1979.
Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982.
Natural Resources Administration: Introducing a New Methodology for Management Development, ed. by C.W. Churchman, A.H. Rosenthal, and S.H. Smith, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1984.
The Well-Being of Organizations, ed. by C.W. Churchman, Intersystems Publications, Salinas, Calif., 1989.
Philosophical Reasoning in Information Systems Research, Special Issue, Informations Systems Frontiers, ed. by C.W. Churchman, J.F. Courtney, and G.L. Sanders, Kluwer Academic Publications, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2000 (forthcoming).
b) Selected Papers
On finite and infinite modal systems. Journal of Symbolic Logic, 3, No. 2, 1938, 77-82.
Philosophy. The American Yearbook 1940, Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York, 1941, 867-872. Also in the Yearbooks 1941 (833-840), 1942 (823-826), and 1943 (829-832).
Towards a general logic of propositions. In F.P. Clarke and M.C. Nahm (eds.), Philosophical Essays in Honor of Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr., University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1942, 46-68.
Statistics of sensitivity data. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 15, 1944 (with B. Epstein).
On the meaningfulness of questions. Philosophy of Science, 13, 1946, 20-24 (with T.A.Cowan).
Philosophical aspects of statistical theory. The Philosophical Review, 55, No. 1, 1946, 81-86.
The dialectic of modern philosophy. The Journal of Philosophy, 18, 1946, 113-124.
A discussion of Dewey and Berkeley's 'postulations'. The Journal of Philosophy, 18, 1946, 217-219 (with T.A. Cowan).
Varieties of unification. Philosophy of Science, 13, 1946, 287-300.
Carnap's 'On Inductive Logic' (discussion). Philosophy of Science, 13, 1946, 339-342.
Tests of increased severity. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 41, Dec. 1946, 567-590 (with B. Epstein).
Much ado about probability. Philosophy of Science, 14, 1947, 176-178.
Ethics and science. Philosophy of Science, 14, 1947, 269-271 (with R.L. Ackoff).
Towards an experimental measure of personality. Psychological Review, 54, 1, 1947, 41-51 (with R.L. Ackoff).
An experimentalist definition of personality. Philosophy of Science, 14, 1947, 304-332 (with R.L. Ackoff).
The consumer and his interests. In C.W. Churchman, R.L. Ackoff, and M. Wax (eds.), Measurement of Consumer Interest, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1947, 122-132.
Statistics, pragmatics and induction. Philosophy of Science, 15, 1948, 249-268.
The democratization of philosophy. Science and Society, 13, 1949, 329-339.
A materialist theory of measurement. In R.W. Sellars et al. (eds.), Philosophy for the Future, Macmillan, New York, 1949, 476-494.
Purposive behavior and cybernetics. Social Forces, 29, 1950, 32-39 (with R.L. Ackoff).
When do we start value research? Journal of Social Issues, 6, 1950, No. 4, 61-63.
Logical reconstructionism. Philosophy of Science, 17, 1950, 164-166.
Basic research in marketing. In R. Cox and W. Anderson (eds.), Theory in Marketing, R.D. Irwin, Chicago, 1950, 3-17.
Some methods of operations research. In W.H. Voorhis (ed.). Conference Proceedings, Operations Research in Business and Industry, November 8-10, 1951, ed. by W.H. Van Voorhis, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1951, 31-38.
Ethics, ideals, and dissatisfaction. Ethics, 18, 1952, 64-65.
Can scientific sampling techniques be used in railroad accounting? Railway Age, June 9, 1952, 61-64
Operations research and market research. In W.H. Voorhis (ed.). Conference Proceedings, Operations Research in Marketing, January 29-31, 1953, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1953, 7-9.
Critique of scientific critiques. The Review of Metaphysics, 8, 1953, 89-97.
Concepts without primitives. Philosophy of Science, 20, 1953, 257-265.
Research and responsibility. Industrial Laboratories, 4, No. 4, April 1953, 1-4. Also as Case Institute of Technology Reprint O.R.-1004, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1953.
Phases of operations research. In Research Operations in Industry, Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference on Industrial Research, Columbia University, June 1953, King's Crown Press, New York, 1953, 337-341.
Introduction. In W.H. Voorhis (ed.). Conference Proceedings, Operations Research in Production and Inventory Control, January 20-22, 1954, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1954, 7-9.
Summary. In W.H. Voorhis (ed.). Conference Proceedings, Operations Research in Production and Inventory Control, January 20-22, 1954, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1954, 99-102.
Notes on a pragmatic theory of induction. Scientific Monthly, 79, 1954, 149-151.
An approximate measure of value. Journal of the Operations Research Society of America, 2, 1954, 172-187 (with R.L. Ackoff).
Operations research: an evaluation. Advanced Management, 19, No. 4, 1954, 15-18.
The philosophy of experimentation. In O. Kempthorne et al. (eds.), Statistics and Mathematics in Biology, Iowa State College Press, Ames, Iowa, 1954, 159-172. Also as Case Institute of Technology Reprint O.R.-1202, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1954.
Operational accounting and operations research. The Journal of Accountancy, 99, 1955, 33-39. Also in D. Solomon (ed.), Studies in Cost Analysis, 2nd ed., Sweet & Maxwell, London, 1968, 80-89 (with R.L. Ackoff).
Management Science, the journal. Management Science, 1, 1955, No. 2, 187-188.
The application of sampling to LCL interline settlements of accounts on American railroads. In W.G. Ireson and E.L. Grant (eds.), Handbook of Industrial Engineering and Management, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1955, 1051-1057.
A survey of operations research accomplishments in industry. In W.H. Voorhis (ed.). Conference Proceedings, What is Operations Research Accomplishing in Industry? April 5-7, 1955, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1955, 7-13.
Management science – fact or theory. Management Science, 2, 1956, No. 2, 185. Also in M.K. Starr (ed.), Executive Readings in Management Science, Macmillan, New York, 1965, 185.
Organizing operations research in the company. In W.H. Voorhis (ed.). Conference Proceedings, Case Studies in Operations Research, February 1-3, 1956, Case Institute of Technology, Ohio, Cleveland, 1956, 66-62.
Problems of value measurement for a theory of induction and decisions. Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1956, 53-59.
Summary. In W.H. Voorhis (ed.). Conference Proceedings, Operations Research, Computers, and Management Decisions, January 30-February 1, 1957, Case Institute of Technology, Ohio, Cleveland, 1957, 93.
A summing up. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Operations Research, Operations Research Society of America, Baltimore, Maryland, 1957, 514-520.
Cost accounting and operations research. In Operations Research, Record of the 1956-57 Operations Research Seminar, University of Michigan, An Arbor, Michigan, 1957, 125-134.
Management sciences. Working Paper CP-1, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1959. Also in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1960, and 1971, 747-750.
Introduction to Experience and Reflection by Edgar A. Singer, Jr., ed. By C.W. Churchman, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1959, vii-xv.
Science and morality. In A.M. Brues (ed.), Low-Level Irradiation, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington, D.C., 1959, 129-142.
Why measure? In C.W. Churchman and Ph. Ratoosh (eds.), Measurement: Definitions and Theories, Wiley, New York, 1959, and Chapman & Hall, London, 1959, 83-94. Also in R.O. Mason and E.B. Swanson (eds.), Measurement for Management Decision, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1981, 40-49.
Organizations and goal revisions. Working Paper CP-9, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley, Dec. 1959. Also in J. Benbury and J. Maitland (eds.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Operations Research, English Universities Press, London, 1960, 6-11.
Sampling and persuasion. Operations Research, 8, 1960, 254-259.
Management and science. Working Paper CP-29, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley, May 1961.
Decision and value theory. In R.L. Ackoff (ed.), Progress in Operations Research, Vol. 1, Wiley, New York, 1961, 34-64.
Toward a mathematics of social science. Working Paper CP-38, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley, Oct. 1961. Also in F. Masserik and P. Ratoosh (eds.), Mathematical Explorations in Behavioral Science, R.D. Irwin & The Dorsey Press, Homewood, Illinois, 1965, 29-36.
On inquiring systems. Working Paper CP-42, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley, May 1962. Also as Report SP-877, System Development Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif., July 1962.
On rational decision-making. Working Paper CP-43, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley, May 1962. Also in Management Technology, 2, No. 2, Dec. 1962, 71-76, and in C.W. Churchman, Challenge to Reason, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, 1968, Ch. 7, 95-106.
Reliability of models in the social sciences. Working Paper CP-47, Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley, July 1962. Also in P. Langhoff (ed.), Models, Measurement and Marketing, Prentice-Hall, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 1965, Ch. 1, 23-38.
An inventory of values and research. In Q. Wright, W. Evan, and M. Deutsch (eds.), Preventing World War III, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1962, 273-277.
Current research in decision-making. Report SP-955, System Development Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif., 1962
The X of X. Management Science, 9, No. 3, April 1963, 351-357. Also in M.K. Starr (ed.), Executive Readings in Management Science, Macmillan, New York, 1965, 416-422, and in C.W. Churchman, Challenge to Reason, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, 1968, Ch. 8., 107-117.
An analysis of the concept of simulation. In A.C. Hoggatt and F.E. Balderston (eds.), Symposium on Simulation Models: Methodology and Applications to the Behavioral Sciences, South-Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1963, 1-12.
Planning basic research. Report SP-985, System Development Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif., 1963.
Deliberation and judgment. In M.W. Shelly II and G.L. Bryan (eds.), Human Judgments and Optimality, Wiley, New York, 1964, 45-53 (with H.B. Eisenberg).
Reality and systems. Atomzeitalter, Information und Meinung, 6, June 1964, 165-170. Also in D. Riepe and J. Pustalinck (eds.), The Structure of Philosophy, Readings in Philosophy from the Greek Period to the Modern Period, Littlefield Publishers, Totowa, New Jersey, 1966.
Managerial acceptance of scientific recommendations. California Management Review, Fall 1964, 31-38. Also in A. Rappaport (ed.), Information for Decision Making: Quantitative and Behavioral Dimensions, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1970, 435-443.
The researcher and the manager: A dialectic of implementation. Management Science, 11, No. 4, Feb. 1965, B69-87 (with A.H. Schainblatt).
Rationalist inquiring systems. Internal Working Paper No. 29, Social Sciences Projects, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., May 1965. Also as “Leibnizian inquiring systems: fact nets” in C.W. Churchman, The Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Books, New York, 1971, Ch. 2, 19-41.
On whole systems. Internal Working Paper No. 31, Social Sciences Projects, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., May 1965. Also as “On whole systems: the anatomy of goal seeking” in C.W. Churchman, The Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Books, New York, 1971, Ch. 3, 42-78.
Introduction to the special issue of Management Science on “The Researcher and the manager: a dialectic of implementation.” Management Science, 12, No. 2, Oct. 1965, B2.
On mutual understanding. Management Science, 12, No. 2, Oct. 1965, B40-42 (with A.H. Schainblatt).
On various approaches to the study of organizations. In J.R. Lawrence (ed.), Operational Research and the Social Sciences, Tavistock Publications, London, 1966, 77-84 (with F.E. Emery).
On the intercomparison of utilities. In S.R. Krupp (ed.), The Structure of Economic Science, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1966, 243-256.
The role of the research administrator. Internal Working Paper No. 38, Social Sciences Projects, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., 1966. Also in M.C. Yovits et al. (eds.), Research Program Effectiveness, Gordon & Breach, New York, 1966, 425-440, and in M.J. Cetron and J.D. Goldhar (eds.), The Science of Managing Organized Technology, Gordon & Breach, New York, 1970, 1307-1316.
On large models of systems. Internal Working Paper No. 39, Social Sciences Projects, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., June 1966. Also as “Large systems models” in C.W. Churchman, Challenge to Reason, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, 1968, Ch. 13.
Perception and deception. Science, 153, 1966, No. 3750 (Sept. 2), 1088-1090.
The use of science in public affairs. Governing Urban Society: New Scientific Approaches, Monograph No. 7, Fels Institute, American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia, Penn., May 1967, 29-48.
Systems planning for implementation of change. In D.D. Bushnell et al. (eds.), The Computer in American Education, Wiley, New York, 1967, 44-48.
Research on research: a philosophical discussion of self-reflection. Internal Working Paper No. 69, Social Sciences Projects, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., August. 1967. Also as Isenberg Lectures, Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, Mich., 1967.
Wicked problems. Guest editorial, Management Science, 14, No. 4, Dec. 1967, B141-142.
The case against planning: the beloved community. Internal Working Paper No. 80, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Feb. 1968. Also in Management Decision, 2, 1968, 74-77.
The prospects for social experimentation (a review of Harold Sackman's “Computers, Systems Science, and Evolving Society,” Wiley, New York, 1967). Science, 159, 1 March 1968, 965-966. Also in B. Lindgren (ed.), Current Research in Psychology, Wiley, New York, 1971, 265-266.
Styles of administration in research and development organizations. In E. Glatt and M.W. Shelly (eds.), The Research Society, Gordon & Breach, New York, 1968, 345-356.
New frontiers to conquer – the research challenge. In C.C. Ling and E.W. Carter (eds.), A Seminar for New Deans, American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, St. Louis, Missouri, 1968, 1-10.
The role of Weltanschauung in problem solving and inquiry. Internal Working Paper No. 94, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Nov. 1968. Also in R. Banerji and M.D. Mesarovic (eds.), Lecture notes in Operations Research and Mathematical Systems', Springer, Berlin, 1970.
Real time systems and public information. Internal Working Paper No. 96, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Dec. 1968. Also in Proceedings, Fall Joint Computer Conference on Real Time Information Systems and Public Interest, 1968, San Francisco, 1969, 1467-1468.
Scoring the university. Science, 163, Feb. 14, 1969, 664-665.
On the design of inductive systems: some philosophical problems. British Journal of the Philosophy of Science, 20, 1969, 311-323 (with B.G. Buchanan).
Morality and psychology: an essay on Kant, Singer, and Jung. Internal Working Paper No. 97, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, June 1969.
Morality and planning. Internal Working Paper No. 98, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Nov. 1969. Also in Design Methods and Theories, Journal of the Design Methods Group and Design Research Society, 10, 1976, 165-181.
Setting the objectives of organizations. Internal Working Paper No. 110, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Nov. 1969.
A nontechnical introduction to operations research. Lecture Notes from IDS [Interdisciplinary Studies, course No.] 175, University of California, Berkeley, Fybate Lecture Notes, Berkeley, Calif., 1969.
Operations research as a profession. Management Science, 17, 1970, No. 2, B37-53. Also in R.L. Flood and M.C. Jackson (eds.), Critical Systems Thinking: Directed Readings, Wiley, Chichester, UK, 1991, Ch. 1, 19-40.
Kant – a decision theorist? Theory and Decision, 1, 1970, 107-116.
Preparation for management: an assessment. Internal Working Paper No. 117, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, May 1970.
The past's future. Internal Working Paper No. 118, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, March 1970. Also in W.E. Stone (ed.), Foundations of Accounting Theory, University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida, 1971; as “Epilogue” in G.J. Klir (ed.), Trends in General Systems Theory, Wiley, New York, 1972; and as “Trends in systems theory” in R.O. Mason & E.B. Swanson (eds.), Measurement for Management Decision, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1981, 152-159.
The artificiality of science, review of Herbert A. Simon's book “The Sciences of the Artificial.” Contemporary Psychology, A Journal of Reviews, 15, No. 6, June 1970, 385-386.
R2 on E: Some suggestions for research on the role of research in education. In B. Lawrence et al. (eds.), Outputs of Higher Education, Their Identification, Measurement, and Evaluation. Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Boulder, Colorado, 1970.
Ungewissheit, Wahrscheinlichkeit und Risiko [Uncertainty, probability, and risk]. In O.W. Haseloff (ed.). Planung und Entscheidung, Forschung und Information Band 5, Colloquium Verlag, Berlin, 1970, 97-107.
Suggestive, predictive, decisive, and systemic measurements. Journal of Safety Research, 2, 1970, No. 3 (Sept.), 131-136. Also in W.E. Tarrants (ed.), The Measurement of Safety Performance, Garland STPM Press, New York, 1980, 129-136, and as The measurement of mood and the mood of measurement” in R.O. Mason and E.B. Swanson (eds.), Measurement for Management Decision, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1981, 74-79.
Measuring social change. Accounting Review, 46, 1971, 30-35. Also in E.S. Hendriksen and B.P. Budge (eds.), Contemporary Accounting Theory, Dickenson Publishing Co., Encino, Calif., 1974, 295-302; in J.L. Livingstone and S.C. Sanford (eds.), Accounting for Social Goals: Budgeting and Analysis of Nonmarket Projects, Harper & Row, New York, 1974; and in R.O. Mason and E.B. Swanson (eds.), Measurement for Management Decision, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1981, 510-515.
Policy for the policy sciences. Internal Working Paper No. 4, Social Applications of Resource Information, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, July 1971.
The systems approach to measurement in business firms. In R.R. Sterling and W.F. Bentz (eds.), Accounting in Perspective, Contributions to Accounting Thought by Other Disciplines, South-Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1971, 51-57.
Management sciences. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1971, 747-750.
Perspectives of the systems approach. Internal Working Paper No. 13, Social Applications of Resource Information, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, April 1972. Also in Interfaces, 4, No. 4, 1974, 6-11.
Business education: preparation for uncertainty. Organizational Dynamics, A Quarterly Review of Behavioral and Management Sciences, Summer, 1972, 12-20.
The systems approach: a philosophical overview. Developed from a talk given at the St. Gallen Symposium, May 1972. Internal Working Paper No. 16, Social Applications of Resource Information, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Oct. 1972.
Measurement: a systems approach. (A review of Theory of Experimental Inference after 21 years.) In J. Leach et al. (eds.), Science, Decision and Value, Proceedings of the Fifth University of Western Ontario Philosophy Colloquium, 1969, D. Reidel Publishing, Dordrecht, Holland, and Boston, Mass., 1972, 70-86.
Management and planning problems. In H. Sackman and H. Borko (eds.), Computers and the Problems of Society, AFIPS Press, Montvale, New Jersey, 1972, 209-230.
On comparison and administration: a philosophical discourse. J. of Comparative Administration, 5, 1973, 15-29.
A critique of the systems approach to social organizations. In R.F. Miles, Jr. (ed.), Systems Concepts: Lectures on Contemporary Approaches to Systems, Wiley, New York, 1973, 191-205.
Morality as a value criterion. In J.L. Cochrane and M. Zeleny (eds.), Multiple Criteria Decision Making, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina, 1973, 3-8.
Basic concepts of operational control. In A.H. Rosenthal (ed.), Public Science Policy and Administration, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1973, 160-176.
Philosophical speculations on systems design. Omega, The International Journal of Management Science, 2, 1974, 451-465. Also in J. Moder and S. Elmaghraby (eds.), Handbook of Operations Research, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1978, 25-39.
On the organization of exoteric universities. In H. Leavitt et al. (eds.), Organizations of the Future, Praeger, New York, 1974, 29-41. Also in American Behavioral Scientist, 18, 1974, 190-200, and in C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982, 85-94.
Towards a theory of application in systems science. Invited paper, Proceedings of the IEEE, 63, No. 3, 1975, Special Issue on Social Systems Engineering, 351-354.
Theories of implementation. In R.L. Schulz and D.P. Slevin (eds.), Implementing Operations Research/ Management Science: Research Findings and Implications, American Elsevier, New York, 1975, 23-30.
What is information for policy making? In M. Kochen (ed.), Information for Action: From Knowledge to Wisdom, Academic Press, New York, 1975, Ch. 3, 33-40.
The new rationalism and its implications for understanding corporations. In E.M. Epstein and D. Votaw (eds.), Rationality, Legitimacy, Responsibility: The Search for New Directions in Business and Society, Goodyear Press, Santa Monica, Calif., 1975, 52-68.
Willingness to pay and morality: a study in future values. In S.H. Smith and A.H. Rosenthal (eds.), Fish and Wildlife Resources Evaluation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C., Feb. 1975. Also in C.W. Churchman (ed.), Systems and Management Annual 1975, Petrocelli/ Charter, New York, 1975, 599-603; in New Zealand Operational Research, 5, No. 2, 1977, 77-84; and in C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982, Ch. 5, 65-72.
Towards a holistic approach. In Proceedings, American Association for the Advancement of Science Conference on Adapting Science to Social Needs, May 5-8, 1976, AAAS Office of Special Programs, Washington, D.C., 1976, 11-24.
The niggling and the grand: an assessment of world modeling. In C.W. Churchman and R.O. Mason (eds.), World Modeling: A Dialogue, North-Holland/ American Elsevier, 1976, 159-163.
Management science and human values: a retrospect. In T.J. Kastelein et al. (eds.), 25 Years of Economic Theory: Retrospect and Prospect, Nijhoff, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1976, 87-101.
A philosophy for complexity. In H.A. Linstone and W.H. Simmonds (eds.), Managing Complexity, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1977.
Values, goals, and prophecies in large organizations. In M. Marois (ed.), Proceedings of the World Conference, Towards a Plan of Actions for Mankind, Vol. 4, Design of Global Systems Models and Their Limitations, Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK, 1977, 161-168.
A sense of life: perspectives of wildlife policies regarding endangered species. In S.H. Spencer and A.H. Rosenthal (eds.), Concepts and Practices in Fish and Wildlife Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., May 1978, 9-15. Also in C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982, Ch. 6, 73-84.
Paradise regained: a hope for the future of system design education. In B.A. Bayraktar et al. (eds.), Education in Systems Science, Taylor and Francis, London, 1979, 17-22.
Systems science. In P.W. Hemily and M.N. ֺdas (eds.), Science and Future Choice, Oxford University Press/ Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK, Vol. 1, 1979, 218-231.
Philosophical notes on public participation. In S.H. Smith and A.H. Rosenthal (eds.), People and Wildlife: Public Involvement in Fish and Wildlife Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., December 1979, 1-5. Also in C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982, Ch. 9, 106-115.
The safety profession's image of humanity. In R.C. Schwing and W.A. Albers, Jr. (eds.), Societal Risk Assessment: How Safe is Safe Enough? Proceedings of the General Motors Symposium on Societal Risk Assessment, Warren, Michigan, October 7-9, 1979, Plenum Press, New York, 1980, 343-346.
The status of the systems approach: a reply to R.A. Bryer. Omega, The International Journal of Management Science, 8, No. 3, 1980, 277-279 (with W. Ulrich).
Intuition and information. In H.P. Holzer (ed.), Management Accounting 1980, Proceedings of the University of Illinois Management Symposium, University of Illinois Press, Urbana-Champagne, 1980, 167-176.
Systems thinking. In G.P. Wood and A.T. Mosher (eds.), Readings in Agricultural Administration, Agricultural Development Council, New York, 1980, 6-10.
Self-images of the professional. In S.H. Smith and A.H. Rosenthal (eds.), Emerging Patterns and Problems in Natural Resource Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., Feb. 1981, 4-7.
The systems approach and its enemies: counterpoint to Christenson's critique – a dialogue. Journal of Enterprise Management, 3, No. 2, 1981, 200-202 (with T.A. Cowan and W. Ulrich).
On dictionaries. Synthese, 46, 1981, 449-454 [D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland; orig. title: The definition of psychological and social concepts (Psychologistics revisited), Paper presented to the Symposium in Memory of Richard Rudner, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, April 1980.]
Gown and town: planning our lives. In A. White (ed.), New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 8, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, Calif., 1981.
The measurement of mood and the mood of measurement. In R.O. Mason and E.b. Swanson (eds.), Measurement for Management Decision, Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, Calif., 1981, 74-79. [Orig.: Suggestive, predictive, decisive, and systemic measurements, Journal of Safety Research, 2, 1970, No. 3 (Sept.), 131-136. Also in W.E. Tarrants (ed.), The Measurement of Safety Performance, Garland STPM Press, New York, 1980, 129-136.]
Trends in systems theory. In R.O. Mason and E.B. Swanson (eds.), Measurement for Management Decision, Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, Calif., 1981, 152-159. [Orig.: The past's future. Internal Working Paper No. 118, Social Sciences Project, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, March 1970. Also in W.E. Stone (ed.), Foundations of Accounting Theory, University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida, 1971; and as “Epilogue” in G.J. Klir (ed.), Trends in General Systems Theory, Wiley, New York, 1972.]
An interdisciplinary look at science policy in an age of decreased funding. In D.I. Phillips and B.S.P. Shen (eds.), Research in the Age of the Steady-State University, Westview Press, boulder, colorado, 1982, 109-113.
Reply to M.C. Jackson. Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, 9, 1982, 37.
Review: Peter Checkland, Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. European Journal of Operational Research, 11, 1982, 405-407.
Success of failure. In S.H. Smith and A.H. Rosenthal (eds.), The Natural Resource Agency – Its People and Organization, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., June 1982, 5-8. Also in C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982, Ch. 3, 36-49.
Forty years in measuring human values. In C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982, Ch. 8, 95-105.
An appreciation of Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr. In C.W. Churchman, Thought and Wisdom, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, Calif., 1982, Ch. 10, 116-135.
The case against central planning research. In R.M. Thrall, R.G. Thompson and M.L. Holloway(eds.), Large-Scale Energy Models: Prospects and Potential, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1983, 25-27.
Churchman's conversations. Regular column in Systems Research, Vols. 1 (1984) - 6 (1989).
Systems profile: discoveries in an exploration into systems thinking. Systems Research, 4, 1987, 139-146.
Epilogue: reflections. In C.W. Churchman (ed.), The Well-Being of Organizations, Intersystems Publications, Salinas, Calif., 1989, 367-368.
Ackoff comes of age. Systems Practice, 3, 1990, 125-130.
Towards a just society for future generations. Foreword to B.H. Banathy and B.A. Banathy (eds.), Toward a Just Society for Future Generations, Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), Portland, Oregon, July 8-13, 1990, 2 vols., ISSS/ California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Calif., 1990, Vol. 1, i-iii.
What is philosophy of science? Guest editorial, Philosophy of Science, 61, No. 1, 1994, 132-141. Also as web publication, undated, approx. June 1997. http://haas.Berkeley.edu/~gem/essays/philos.html(approve sites) (last accessed 17 August 1999).
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Management science: science of managing and managing of science. Interfaces, 24, 1994 (No. 4, Special Section: In Celebration of C. West Churchman's 80 Years), 99-110.
Ethics and science. Systems Research, 12, 1995 (No. 4, Special Issue on Kenneth Boulding), 267-271.
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Managerialism: the management of human knowledge. Management Laureates, 5, JAI Press, New York, 1998, 41-92.
Foreword. In N. Verma, Similarities, Connections, and Systems: The Search for a New Rationality for Planning and Management, Lanham, Maryland, 1999, xv-xviii.
Introduction to the special issue (with J.F. Courtney and G.L. Sanders). In C.W. Churchman, J.F. Courtney, and G.L. Sanders (eds.), Special Issue on “Philosophical Reasoning in Information Systems Research,” Information Systems Frontiers, 3, No. 2, 2001, 139-141.
Acknowledgments
The essay “An appreciation of C. West Curchman” is a revised, updated and extended version of the author's guest editorial, entitled “C. West Churchman – 75 years,” in the Festschrift issue of Systems Practice, 1, 1988, 341-350.
The bibliography of C. West Churchman's writings was compiled by the author in August 1999; he is obliged to Kristo Ivanov, Umeå, Sweden, and Harold G. Nelson, Seattle, Washington, for their help.
About the Author
Werner Ulrich is a social scientist and practical philosopher born in 1948 in Bern, Switzerland. He obtained doctorates in Economics and Social Science (Dr.rer.pol., 1975) from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and in Philosophy of Social Systems Design (Ph.D., 1980) from the University of California at Berkeley. At Berkeley he studied and worked for five years with C. West Churchman; he also translated Churchman's book The Systems Approach and Its Enemies into German. Ulrich has since become known as one of the originators of Critical Systems Thinking (CST), which he understands as systemic thinking in the service of reflective practice and research. He has many years of experience as chief evaluator and policy analyst in government and as a professor of social planning, program evaluation, poverty research, and critical systems thinking at the University of Fribourg and other universities. He is currently (2005-2010) Honorary Visiting Professor in the Technology Faculty of The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. Previously he has held Visiting professorships at the University of Hull, UK (1985-86), at the University of Humberside & Lincolnshire (now University of Lincoln), UK (1997-2000), and at Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand (1999). Among over 175 publications, his major book thus far is Critical Heuristics of Social Planning: A New Approach to Practical Philosophy (Wiley paperback reprint edition, New York, 1994). His current research program “CST for Professionals and Citizens” explores the ways critical systems thinking can contribute to responsible professional practice and to preparing citizens for their role in a living civil society.
Author's Postscript (5 March 2006)
C. West Churchman died on 21 March 2004 in Bolinas, California. He was 90 years old.
An Obituary published in the San Francisco Chronicle on 25 March can be found at http://wulrich.com/cwc_obituarynotice.html.
An Obituary published in my home page on 2 April 2004 can be found at http://wulrich.com/picture_april2004.html.
Subsequent to West's passing, I have written these two new tribute essays:
In memory of C. West Churchman (1913-2004): reminiscences, retrospectives, and reflections. Organisational Transformation and Social Change, 1, No. 2/3, 2004, 199-219. Available on-line at http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/doi/abs/10.1386/jots.1.2.199/0 (restricted access) or http://wulrich.com/downloads/ulrich_2004d.pdf (open access, prepublication version) .
Obituary: C. West Churchman, 1913-2004. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 55, No. 11 (Nov.), 2004, 1123-1129. Available on-line at http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v55/n11/ (restricted access).
Finally, the reader may like to know that an extensively revised, more complete version of the above bibliography is now available as a separate resource that is continually being updated as omissions or errors become known to the author. It can be found at http://www.wulrich.com/cwc_bibliography.html. The bibliography is part of the materials offered in a tribute section of my home page dedicated to C. West Churchman, see http://www.wulrich.com/cwc.html (open access). PDF versions of both the bibliography and the present essay are also available there.
Update of 4 Nov 2009: C. West's Churchman's alter ego, Russell L. Ackoff, died on 29 October 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, aged 90.
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