A Holistic-Reductionistic Approach for Modeling Interdependencies
نویسندگان
چکیده
Modeling and analyzing critical infrastructures and their interdependencies are essential to discovering hidden vulnerabilities and threats. Several current approaches engage a holistic perspective and rely on abstract models; others incorporate a reductionistic perspective and focus on inter-domain and intra-domain interactions among elementary components. This paper proposes a mixed approach in which holism and reductionism coexist. A critical infrastructure is expressed at different, albeit interrelated, levels of abstraction, and intermediate entities that provide specific aggregate resources or services are introduced.
منابع مشابه
Reductionistic and holistic science.
A reductionistic approach to science, epitomized by molecular biology, is often contrasted with the holistic approach of systems biology. However, molecular biology and systems biology are actually interdependent and complementary ways in which to study and make sense of complex phenomena.
متن کاملA Configurational Approach to Information Technology Outsourcing
As scholarly interest in IT outsourcing has gained momentum recently, the ability to integrate this line of research into a coherent and consistent body of evidence seems to have been constrained by the difficulty of reconciling the contradictory findings that have emerged from outsourcing studies. This paper suggests that the recurring call for an integrative view of outsourcing can be address...
متن کاملSystems of Systems: Pure, and Applied to Lean Six Sigma
This chapter will briefly introduce the principles of General Systems Thinking (GST) as defined by classic literature on the subject (Ackoff, 1971; Battista, 1977; Bertalanffy, 1968; Boulding, 1956; Churchman, 1968; Waelchi, 1992; Weinburg, 1975). In particular, this chapter will contrast two opposing operational research (OR) views about systems thinking; the ‘reductionistic’ (‘hard’) approach...
متن کاملBuilding a Science of Complexity
It is argued that in order to solve complex problems we need a new approach, which is neither reductionistic nor holistic, but based on the entanglement of distinction and connection, of disorder and order, thus defining a science of complexity. A model of complex evolution is proposed, based on distributed variation through recombination and mutation, and selective retention of internally stab...
متن کاملAggregate, composed, and evolved systems: Reductionistic heuristics as means to more holistic theories
Richard Levins’ distinction between aggregate, composed and evolved systems acquires new significance as we recognize the importance of mechanistic explanation. Criteria for aggregativity provide limiting cases for absence of organization, so through their failure, can provide rich detectors for organizational properties. I explore the use of failures of aggregativity for the analysis of mechan...
متن کامل