Power of CSA

CSA was developed at the Institute for Advanced Systems Studies (IAS) as a tool and technique. It is an acronym meaning Comparative Systems Analysis. CSA results in recognition and documentation of the IT (Integrative Themes) or Isomorphies that are the basis for the ISGE curriculum.

CSA was developed into a curriculum of 14 interdisciplinary courses that were proposed as a new major in the sciences, across the sciences from 1972-5 by grants from the then termed New XXXXX with total grants of $xxx . Ironically, however, another bureaucratic unit of the same Chancellor’s Office for all 23 CSU campuses rejected those proposals despite them being presented for several years running by the CPP President. As a compromise, CSA was made into a “” under the Biology Department (home department of the author) with the 14 cross-disciplinary courses contained in the official University catalogue until the author and Founder of the IAS retired in 2003.

The Power of Comparative has been proven over and over again in the Biological Sciences. Each of the following has a long and distinctive history: comparative physiology; comparative speciation (taxonomy and evolution); and now comparative genomics. It is likely that it will have a similar distinctive efficacy as CSA.