"The organismic theory assumed that biological systems were stratified, presented a hierarchy of levels of organization. At the lowest level there were complex protein and DNA molecules. At higher level there were cells, then at the next higher one, organs. Finally, there was the whole organism, which was an important unit of the biosphere. However, the hierarchy of systems organization did not end at the boundary of the individual organism, but proceeded further to animal and human societies. It could be discerned even in the ecological systems of the biosphere."

"...the hierarchy of systems organization did not end at the boundary of the individual organism. It extended to animal and plant species, to pools of genes, to ecological systems, consisting of several species of animals and plants, briefly to the whole biosphere."

"Von Bertalanffy believed that the laws of development of open systems applied not only to the development of biological systems, but also to the development of symbolic systems, to that of societies and of cultures." (S3.11)

Slots and Values
source	Unnamed
ref	p11, sect 3.6