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A Recreated Mental Model for Systems Thinking
Introduction
The idea for this article, my musing, erupted from two very different sources of inspiration; the first being from the intellectual autobiography by Colin McGinn, ‘The Making of a Philosopher’; while the second is from the fact that I am about to begin studying System Dynamics in my final year at university.
In his autobiography McGinn talks about an idea that has seriously captivated me. He calls it CALM: Combinatorial Atomism with Lawlike Mappings. As its name eludes, the method essentially deals with understanding and conceptualizing entities in question by having them decomposed into atomic elements in order to articulate their mode of arrangement, then are recomposed to ultimately derive the myriad of complex objects found in nature. Note that he defines natural entities as complex systems of interacting parts that evolve over time as a result of various causal influences.
Take these two polar examples for instance (which I have attempted to structure in terms of Entity, Atoms, Laws):
Example #1:
- Entity: physical inanimate object
- Atoms: spatial complexes made of molecules, atoms, and quarks etc.
- Laws: physical forces of nature
