There are tight system and loose systems. An organism, such as an individual Homo sapiens, is a fairly tight system; the super-organic structure of society is looser.

Tighter than man is a watch. Looser than society are the flight patterns of seven unrelated species of North American birds.

A Tight Systems Theorist is one who sees loose systems as tight. A Loose Systems Theorist is one who sees tight systems as loose.

Ayn Rand was a Tight Systems Theorist. She argued that falling in love had something to do with one's rational values.

Herbert Spencer seemed to understand that there were varying degrees of tightness and looseness to different types of systems. His Synthetic Philosophy has numerous examples of different levels of tightness. And looseness. He was, among other things, a spontaneous order theorist, and believed that social systems were somewhat loose. But still systemic.

C.S. Peirce argued that Spencer was too much a Tight System Theorist, however, and did not give enough scope to chance in his explanation of evolution. This appraisal is almost certainly correct. Peirce called his take on the role of chance Tychism.

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