What is Ludwig von Bertalanffy?

Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian biologist who founded General Systems Theory, arguing that living organisms are open systems that exchange energy and matter with their environment and maintain themselves through ongoing self-regulation, in contrast to closed, mechanical systems that tend toward equilibrium and decay.

Bertalanffy proposed that this open-systems view could apply beyond biology, to psychology, sociology, and organizational life, and his push for a unified, cross-disciplinary science of systems is the direct intellectual ancestor of the systems thinking field practiced today.