Closed models and open systems

The title of this paper may suggest a specific focus on the possibilities and problems of matching closed models and open systems; however, although the relationships between systems and the models that we seek to apply to them are indeed the primary topics, there is no assumption that all systems are open and all models closed. Instead, I shall be taking readers on a tour of other people’s ideas about openness and closure in our attempts to make sense of our environment and ourselves.