Peter Checkland Quotes

1930–2026 England

Peter Checkland (18 December 1930 – 17 May 2026) was a British management scientist and emeritus professor of Systems at Lancaster University. He was the developer of soft systems methodology (SSM)

England
Academics
Business theorists

Also known as: Checkland, Peter

Random Peter Checkland quote

9 quotes

In a certain sense human activity systems do not exist, only perceptions of them exist, perceptions which are associated with specific Ws.

A root definition describing a notional system chosen for its relevance to what the investigator and/or people in the problem situation perceive as matters of contention.

p. 319 cited in: Raymond W. Y. Kao (2010)

We reduce the complexity of the variety of the world in experiments whose results are validated by their repeatability, and we may build knowledge by the refutation of hypotheses.

p. 51 cited in: Rosário Macário (2011)

A methodology will lack the precision of a technique but will be a firmer guide to action than a philosophy. Where a technique tells you 'how' and a philosophy tells you 'what', a methodology will contain elements of both 'what' and 'how'.

The core of a root definition of a system will be a transformation process (T), the means by which defined inputs are transformed into defined outputs. The transformation will include the direct object of the main activity verbs subsequently required to describe the system.

In an unrestricted science such as biology or geology, the effects under study are so complex that designed experiments with controls are often not possible. Quantitative models are more vulnerable and the chance of unknown factors dominating the observations is much greater.

Cursory inspection of the world suggests it is a giant complex with dense connections between its parts. We cannot cope with it in that form and are forced to reduce it to some separate areas which we can examine separately'. ..

p. 60 cited in: Frederik Pretorius (2008)

Systems is an epistemology (making a statement of the kind: 'A certain type of knowledge may be expressed in systems language') before it is an ontology (which would make a statement of the kind: 'The world is systemic'); and in the case of work whose concern is social reality it may never be possible to make ontological statements in systems terms.

We have no aces to what the world is, to ontology, only to descriptions of the world... that is to say, epistemology... We should never say something in the world: 'it is a system'; only: "it may be described as a system'.

p. 671 cited in Stephen K. Probert (1998)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Peter Checkland (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.