Scholars that inspire us

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Several scholars, of the past an of the present, inspire us in our research on systems intelligence. Here we have listed a number of them and the themes of their work we find significant to our research. The name index (pdf, 3.0 MB) of our newest volume on systems intelligence links our writings to the work of many of these researchers.

Russell L. Ackoff (systems thinking)
Christopher Alexander (architect-philosopher of life)
George E. Atwood (therapy studies, applied systems thinking)
Robert Axelrod (evolution of cooperation)

Gregory Bateson (human systems)
Beatrice Beebe (infant research, adult treatment)
Ludwig von Bertalanffy (general systems theory)
David Bohm (thought as a system)
Alain de Botton (philosophy)
Hilary Bradbury (action research)
Jerome Bruner (psychology)
James MacGregor Burns (leadership)

Kim S. Cameron (positive organizational scholarship)
C. West Churchman (systems thinking)
Randall Collins (microsociology and emotional energy)
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (flow)

Alan Fogel (applied systems thinking)
Robert Louis Flood (systems thinking)
Barbara Fredrickson (emotions research)

Howard Gardner (multiple intelligences)
Gerd Gigerenzer (heuristics in decision making)
Herbert Gintis (behavioral game theory)
Sumantra Ghoshal (management thinking)
Erving Goffman (frame analysis)
Daniel Goleman (emotional and social intelligence)
John Gottman (marriage and relationship studies)
Douglas Griffin (organizations and leadership)

Emily D. Heaphy (positive organizational scholarship)
Heikki Hyötyniemi (neocybernetics)

William Isaacs (dialogue)

Mike C. Jackson (systems thinking)
Robert Jervis (applied systems thinking)

Daniel Kahneman (a Nobelist, psychology of choice)
Ralph Keeney (decision making)
Barbara J. King (biological anthropology)

Ellen Langer (mindfulness theory)
Benyamin Lichtenstein (complexity)
Marcial Losada (meta-learning)
Karlen Lyons-Ruth (therapy studies)

George Herbert Mead (social psychology)
Gerald Midgley (systems thinking)

Donna M. Orange (therapy studies)

Robert E. Quinn (positive organizational scholarship)

Howard Raiffa (decision and negotiation analysis)
Richard Rorty (pragmatism)

Martin Seligman (positive psychology)
Peter Senge (systems thinking and organizational learning)
John Shotter (social constructionism)
Herbert Simon (a Nobelist, artificial intelligence and bounded rationality)
Ralph Stacey (complexity and management)
John Sterman (system dynamics)
Daniel N. Stern (infant research, intersubjectivity)
Robert D. Stolorow (therapy, applied systems thinking)
Lawrence Susskind (conflict resolution)

Deborah Tannen (interpersonal communication)
Charles Taylor (philosophy)
Amos Tversky (cognitive psychology and decisions)

Elke Weber (psychology of decision making)
Karl E. Weick (sensemaking)