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The study of open systems is a cornerstone of many scientific disciplines outside physics. Across the biological, social, and cognitive sciences, systems are commonly understood in terms of their interactions with an environment. This is because, at a fundamental level, the entities studied in these disciplines are rarely, if ever, isolated. Organisms exchange energy and matter with their surroundings, social groups depend on external influences, and cognitive processes are shaped by environmental stimuli. Theories that emphasise openness, such as general systems theory (von Bertalanffy 1988), cybernetics (Wiener 1950), synergetics (Haken 1983), and complex systems theory (Ladyman and Wiesner 2020, Thurner et al. 2018), have been instrumental in shaping modern scientific methodologies. These frameworks allow researchers to analyse and predict the behaviour of dynamically interacting components within larger wholes.
While openness is often taken as a given in the special sciences, physics has historically developed with a strong emphasis on closed-system modelling. The success of Newtonian mechanics, classical thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics has to a large extent relied on the ability to isolate and describe systems in terms of well-defined boundary conditions. Even when physical systems are manifestly open, traditional approaches attempt to account for environmental influences by incorporating them into an effectively closed formalism. This methodological preference raises questions with deep philosophical implications: Does this approach adequately capture the complexities of real-world systems, or does it impose artificial constraints on our understanding of nature? To what extent can open-system phenomena be reduced to closed-system descriptions, and what are the limits of this reduction?
Recent developments suggest that the importance of open systems is gaining increasing recognition within physics. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, pioneered by Prigogine and Nicolis (1977), has challenged the traditional emphasis on closed equilibrium states, highlighting the role of irreversible processes and emergent structures. Similarly, research in quantum biology (Al-Khalili and McFadden 2015) has underscored the interplay between quantum effects and environmental interactions in biological systems. At the intersection of physics and cognitive science, dynamic causal modelling (Weinberger 2020) provides tools for understanding how information flows through complex networks, while interventionist accounts of causation (Pearl 2009, Woodward 2003) emphasise the role of external influences in shaping system behaviour, suggesting that open-system approaches are not merely useful but, in some cases, essential for advancing our understanding of the physical world. In quantum foundations, research into ‘quantum causality’ has provided new perspectives on the role of environmental interactions in quantum processes. While traditional interpretations of quantum mechanics often rely on a closed-system perspective, recent work in this area challenges this assumption, arguing that a more accurate understanding of the causal structure of quantum phenomena requires that we explicitly consider the openness of the systems involved (Allen et al. 2017, Costa and Shrapnel 2016), shedding new light on the nature of quantum nonlocality and the limits of classical causal explanations (Adlam 2023, Evans 2018, Shrapnel 2019). These developments resonate with broader trends in physics, where the study of complex, adaptive, and information-rich systems increasingly calls for a departure from purely closed-system frameworks.
Despite these advances, the methodological and conceptual challenges posed by open systems remain. How should we formalise openness in physical theories? Are existing mathematical frameworks sufficient, or do we need new theoretical tools? What implications does the shift towards open-system thinking have for the philosophy of science and metaphysics?
In the following chapters, we and our fellow contributors will explore these questions and others in depth. To begin with, however, the next section will provide a short discussion of how open systems are understood and analysed in physics. Along the way, we will introduce key concepts that will be essential as the reader progresses through the book. At the end of this introduction, we will summarise the chapters to come, offering a road map for the journey ahead.