AN AXIOMATIC THEORY OF GENERAL SYSTEMS
Thomas G. Windeknecht · Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) · 1967
The paper presents a formalization of the principal concepts of the block diagram approach in systems theory using set theory. The development is axiomatic. Starting from Mesarovic's notion of a general system as an n-ary relation, (i) the concept of time is introduced (ii) multi-variable input-output systems are formalized and (iii) the evolution of such systems in time is studied both with and without the property of non-anticipation. It is demonstrated in the latter case that the concept of state naturally arises.