Abstract

Humanistic systems theory provides a context, a framework, a world view--as new set of "conceptual goggles"--through which the world is seen as permeated with awareness and holistically integrated as a metapattern of connections. ;Two taxonomies place the person, human consciousness, in the natural universe. One design incorporates human evolution within "conventional" ontologies of concrete systems. A second design is based on the complementarity of concrete and relational systems, and on a complementarity of individual and collective systems. ;The key thesis assumption is that minds are immanent in systems, that all concrete systems of matter-energy have, in their relational aspects, a complementary awareness, a mind, an image of the world. Thus, for each emergent level of systemic complexity, there is a new level of awareness--which at the human level is consciousness. Evolutionary theories in the physical, biological, and particularly, the human domains are integrated into a chronological table according to a four-stage cycle of emergence. ;General systems theories are used as the conceptual data for identifying the metapatterns of evolution. These patterns are, in brief, complementary process and level structure. An explicit epistemology is summarized in definitions of: evolution and existence; complements and levels; and genesis, emergence, and succession. ;The thesis objectives are: To develop a set of general systems concepts applicable to mechanistic, organismic, and humanistic world views; to construct a theory of human consciousness; and to place consciousness within the systems-scientific scheme of nature. ;Holonomy, which means the study of whole/parts, is a humanistic systems theory. It is a theory of emergent evolution which follows the "natural cleavages" of terrestrial complexity, separating reality into three broad domains: matter, life, and consciousness. Humanistic systems theory includes mechanistic and organismic perspectives of reality, yet also incorporates a humanistic perspective