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Ultimately--as quantum physics showed so dramatically--there are no parts at all. What we call a part s merely a pattern in an inseparable web of relationships. Therefore the shift from the parts to the whole can also be seen as a shift from objects to relationships. In a sense, this a a figure/ground shift. In the mechanistic view the world is a collection of objects. These, of course, interact with one another, and hence there are relationships among them. But the relationships are secondary, as illustrated schematically below in figure 3-1A. In the systems view we realize that the objects themseleves are networks of relationships, embedded in larger networks. For the systems thinker the relationships are primary. The boundaries of the discernible patterns("objects") are secondary, as pictured--again in greatly simplified fashion--in figure3-1B.

从部分进入整体，可以被看成从物件进入系统。也就是说，这是一个figure/ground shift (图形／背景，正负形）转换。 在机械的视野中，世界是一个对象集合。这些集合，当然，彼此关联，所以他们之间有各种关系。但是关系是第二为的， 如果图3－1A所显示的。 在这个系统视野中，我们认识到那些对象本身是各种关系的网络，它被嵌入了一个更大的网络。 对于系统思考者来说，关系是基础性primary的, 可识别的组织（对象）的边界是第二位的。

在量子系统中，一个测量结果是由被测的客体和测量装置共同决定的，即是被测粒子与宏观的测量装置共同作用的结果，“离开了同整体的关系，部分是没有意义的。”

最终，如同量子物理学显示的那样戏剧性－－－世界上没有分离的个体。

在一个量子系统中，两个相距很远（即使有几光年距离）的相关粒子必须被看作是一个整体，它们之间存在着肯定的关联协作性，并且，这种关联协作性内在于量子世界中。这意味着，一个系统中的各个相关部分不是独立存在的，即使它们可能相隔遥远，看起来似乎没有必然的因果相关，但是其实，它们之间总是存在着整体需要的一致性和关联性。

perception of the living world as a network of relationships has made thinking in terms of networks--expressed more elegantly in German as vernetzte Denken--another key characteristic of systems thinking. This "network thinking" has influenced not only our view of nature but also the way we speak about scientific knowledge. For thousands of years Western scientists and philosophers have used the metaphor of knowledge as a building, together with many other architectural metaphors derived from it.

perception--感知
in terms of---根据、在某些方面

把世界感知成为一个关系网，使得思考更加依据网络关系，在德语中最好的表达为vernetztes Denken. --这是一个系统性思考的关键特点。 这个系统性思考已经不仅影响到我们观察的“自然观”， 也影响到我们谈论科学知识的方式。 几千年来西方科学家和泽学夹已经将知识象征为一个建筑体，还有很多从建筑概念中抽离出来的其他各种建筑性表征。

We speak of fundamental laws, fundamental principles, basic building blocks, and the like, and we assert that the edifice of science must be built on firm foundations. Whenever major scientific revolutions occurred, it was felt that the foundations of science were moving.

我们谈论基本定律、基本原则、基本建筑、基础板块等等、我们坚称宏伟的建筑必须建筑于坚实的基础，无论什么时候主要科学革新发生，我们都感觉科学的基础其实在变化。因此，Descartes笛卡儿在他著名的论述中谈到方法是这样的

Thus Descartes wrote in his celebrated Discourse on Method:

In so far as (the sciences) borrow their principles from philosophy, I considered that nothing solid could be built on such shifting foundations.

目前当科学从借助于哲学的“原理”， 我认为没有任何实体可以被建立在这样一个变化的基础之上。

Einstein, in his autobiography, described his feeling in terms very similar to Heisenberg's:

It was as if the ground had been pulled out from under one, with no firm foundation to be seen anywhere, upon which one could have built.

In the new systems thinking, the metaphor of knowledge as a building is being replaced by that of the network. As we perceive reality as a network of relationships, our descriptions, too, form an interconnected network o f concepts and models in which there are no foundations. For most scientists such a view of knowledge as a network with no firm foundations is extremely unsettling,and today it is by no means generally accepted. But as the network approach expands throughout the scientific community, the idea of knowledge as a network will undoubtedly find increasing acceptance.