The Centre for Systems Philosophy
The Centre for Systems Philosophy (founded in 2012) is a privately funded not-for-profit organisation based in Surrey, United Kingdom. We build models to help us understand complex natural systems.
We have undertaken collaborative projects with local and international organisations, including Oregon State University; Royal Holloway, University of London; the University of Hull; the University of Wales TSD; the International Society for the Systems Sciences; the Bertalanffy Centre for the Study of Systems Science; and the International Council on Systems Engineering.
Diagram from: Rousseau, D. (2018). On the Architecture of Systemology and the Typology of Its Principles. Systems, 6(7), 1-17.
Management Team
Prof. David Rousseau, BEng PhD FRA
David founded the CSP in 2012, as a vehicle for promoting his vision that the systems perspective can significantly aid research into foundational questions and complex realities. His projects are aimed at extending and refining the concepts, principles and methods of Systemology, with a view to finding better ways to find good questions to ask in complex scenarios, and more productive ways to work on answering them.
David has an academic background in engineering, philosophy and the study of religions, professional experience in high-technology project management and academic research, and a long history of service on the boards of research-oriented charities and the committees of academic research centres and societies.
He has published more than 50 articles in a range of journals and books spanning philosophy, systems science, systems engineering, spirituality and exploratory science. [More...]
Julie Billingham, BSc(Hons) MSc
Julie joined the CSP full-time in January 2021 to expand the reach and impact of the CSP’s work. She has been a pro bono Scientific Advisor to the Centre since its inception, in parallel with her consultancy career, and co-authored a number of the Centre's publications.
She brings an academic background in pure and applied mathematics, with a focus on modelling and simulation for decision analysis in complex adaptive systems. She has consulted across a wide range of industries, most recently in business strategy and organisational design in the context of digital business transformation.
As Strategy Director her focus is on the CSP’s business operations, but she continues to be engaged in its research projects. Her most recent research investigated the role of organisation in the enduring viability of microbial communities, as input to the CSP's ongoing work on systemic virtues for resilience engineering. She is interested in the ways in which systemic inertia can be overcome in organisations and societies, the mechanisms of change and how new ideas and perspectives can take root.