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

EMERGENCE and REDUCTION 2)3)

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Any good understanding of a complex system requires a well integrated understanding of the relationships between emergence and reduction.

Properties of a whole cannot make full sense if not sighted as a global network of interactions between parts, which in turn must be duly considered as such.

A very simple example is the study of water (H2O).

Its properties are widely different from those of hydrogen and oxygen. However, the characteristics proper to these molecules (for example their electrons shells) are basic for the understanding of common (or heavy) water. This becomes still clearer when we consider for example the hydrogen atom within the HCI molecule It is commonly said that the whole is more than its parts.

It is however in a sense also less: as atoms enter in combination, they actualize potentially possible relationships, but also preclude others.

In short emergence and reductionism offer complementary and necessary views and it is a gross mistake to oppose them in an exclusive way.

In this 1996 paper, K. BAILEY offers important insights about the ways we should use what he calls the upward ladder (botom up) and the downward ladder ( top down).

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]

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