modified by the new experience. Such circular relations Vickers takes to be the common facts of social life, but we fail to see this clearly, he argues, because of the concentration in our science-based culture on linear causal chains and on the notion of goal-seeking. Vickers suggests replacing the goal-setting and goal-seeking with feedback models in which personal, institutional or cultural activity consists in maintaining desired relationships and eluding undesired ones. The process is a cyclical one which operates like this: Our previous experiences have created for us certain 'standards' or 'norms', usually 'tacit' (and also, at a more general level, 'values', more general concepts of what is humanly good and bad); the standards, norms and/or values lead to readiness to notice only certain features of our situations, they determine what 'facts' are relevant; the facts noticed are evaluated against the norms, a process which leads to our taking regulatory action and modifies the norms or standards, so that future experiences will be evaluated differently.</blockquote> Geoffrey Vickers continued corresponding with Peter Checkland in the years before Vickers' death and discussed the relationship between systems ideas and real-world experience. From those discussions Checkland created the model of the appreciative process, that may be used as a basis for making sense of the world we live in. Checkland (2004) worked on numerous examples to demonstrate the way in which the model may be applied in very different situations. Moral and political philosophy Geoffrey Vickers' perspectives on moral and political philosophy can be presented through three key terms: Our human capacity to respond aptly to our situation; The analysis of modern society in terms of institutions; and The moral importance of responsibility to the maintenance of human culture and cooperation Publications Systems thinking Edited papers For children – circa 1926 Poetry World War II Vickers writings in Adolph Lowe Archive "Purpose and Force; The Bases of Order" (pub), 1940. "Incomes and Earnings–A Steady State?" (pub.), circa 1960. "The Management of Conflict" (pub.), 1972. "Towards a More Stable State" (pub.), 1972. Copies of Vickers-Simon Correspondence (unpub. TS), 1973. "Whither the Mixed Economy?" (pub.), 1973. "Some Implications of Systems Thinking" (unpub. TS), 1978. "The Poverty of Problem-Solving" (unpub. TS), 1980. "Autonomous Yet Responsible?" (unpub. TS), undated. "The Weakness of Western Culture" (unpub. TS), undated. References Further reading External links Systems Theory Search Open University resources relating to Geoffrey Vickers Geoffrey Vickers Archive at the Open