BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

CONCEPTUAL SPACE 3)4)

← Back

The domain open to search, research and creation as delimited by existing mental constraints.

This notion, developed by M. BODEN in her inquiry in natural and artificial intelligence, is closely related to the paradigm concept. To any conceptual space corresponds a system of generative rules (or a generative system) that defines the possible research space. In M. BODEN's terms, it is a kind of "map… used to generate an indefinite number of very useful "coulds" and "cannots" (1990, p.47).

(BODEN's generative rules seem to be very close to FRITZ' actuation rules).

Or: "… a conceptual space (or a family of neighbouring conceptual spaces), whose potential is both created and limited by the constraints concerned" (p.158).

In a conceptual space, congruences are established in accordance with the ordering constraints.

Should the generative system be modified, the conceptual space would be to. This happens for example when one emigrates into another culture, or start to work in a different discipline. M. BODEN states: "The deeper the change in the generative system, the more different – and less immediately intelligible – is the corresponding conceptual space" (p.81).

The conceptual space is progressively acquired through learning and ends up with a kind of autopoietic mental closure, which however implies the previous internalization of simpler competences and maps, i.e. ordering constraints. In M. BODEN's words: "These representations arise on several successive levels, each time enabling the person to exploit the prior knowledge in ways that were not possible before. The person progresses from one skill that is fluent but automatic (being varied only with much effort and little success) to one that can be altered in many ways" (p.64).

The subject is closely related to the "creativity" one.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint