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Opening and closing in open systems
Author(s) -
Klapp Orrin E.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830200406
Subject(s) - openness to experience , closing (real estate) , mathematical economics , open system (computing) , sociology , epistemology , law and economics , positive economics , economics , control theory (sociology) , computer science , social psychology , law , psychology , political science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , control (management) , software , programming language
After considering some phenomena of collective behavior, this paper suggests an amendment to the open social system model. Only under some conditions does a pluralistic society approximate J. S. Mill's description of the free market of ideas. A more accurate picture is continual oscillation between relative openness and closedness—resilient adjustment to intakes of information and states of entropy. When such oscillations are more fully analyzed as information games, we may better understand how open systems work, as well as such phenomena as ethnic revivalism, cultic movements, backlashes, mass contagions, fads, and fashion cycles.