title: The concept of hierarchy in general systems theory.
abstract: The paper reviews main ideas related to the concept of hierarchy as they are discussed in contemporary general systems theory. After presenting a dictionary definition of the concept, the author examines the intuitive idea of hierarchy quoting Mario Bunge's notion of level structure. Then relationship between two other concepts: a system and a hierarchy is characterised on the bases of Bowler's, Bunge's again, Klir's, and the author's studies. Finally, the paper is concluded that hierarchy is not an otological concept but epistemological one.
authors.affiliation: Department of Praxiology and Science, Polish Akademy of Sciences, Warsaw.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gasparski
mesh_terms: D002965:Classification; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018511:Systems Integration; D013598:Systems Theory; D009626:Terminology as Topic