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.

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GENERAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH: Operational prescriptions 2)

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According to J.W. SUTHERLAND: "The general systems theorist brings to his discipline or areas of investigation the following operational tenets:

- The postulate that non-mechanical wholes are not simple sums (or products) of the properties of their parts.

- A preference for a holistic as opposed to a reductionist analytical modality when treating the "organic" or "open" systems which predominate in the social and behavioral sciences.

- The concentration on macrodeterminacy as an isomorphic property of many (or most) complex systems, and as a fundamental point for analytical departure.

- The employment of ideal-types, taxonomies and typologies as fundamental vehicles for the advancement of science in complex phenomenal domains" (1973, p.34).

As to the holistic modality, it should not be opposed to the analytic one: both seem really complementary. Holistic (i.e. interconnective) aspects had to be strongly restated, but they are certainly a frame of reference for analysis and reconstructability, not at all exclusive of specific disciplinarian and analytic research, directed to the individual nature of interconnecting parts and elements.

As to "macrodeterminacy", let us remember that the simultaneity of events in different parts of the complex system limits it up to a point, as shown by the theory and models of chaotic determinism.

Taxonomies and typologies are certainly very important tools and systems sciences offer a very significant example: J. MILLER's taxonomy of living systems.

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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