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

GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY: History 1)

It could be said that there was a pre-history of systems theory, in which early isolated authors developed systemic and cybernetic concepts without being aware of each others and were forgotten or presumably unknown by the "founding fathers ". Such are the cases of:

d'ARCY W. THOMPSON, whose fundamental work on "Growth and Form" (1916), reprinted in 1952, can be viewed as the first attempt to use homomorphies and isomorphies systemically.

A. LOTKA, whose "Elements of Mathematical Biology" (1924), reprinted in 1956, offer a synthesis of his original concepts about growth, equilibrium, general evolution and natural cycles.

A.A. BOGDANOV and his "Essays in Tektology", forerunner of cybernetics, first published in Russian in 1921 and translated only in 1980 to English.

J.C. SMUTS, the South African general and statesman, who published in 1926 his seminal essay on "Holism and Evolution", reprinted in 1973.

W. CANNON, who in his "Wisdom of the Body", probably inspired from CI. BERNARD's concept of "milieu interne", formally introduced in 1932 the concept of homeostasis in biology.

Another milestone was the solution of the MAXWELL's demon paradox by L. SZILARD in 1929, who showed the fallacy of the supposed possibility to do some work without any source of energy.

Still other precursors were S. ODOBLEJA, with his "Cybernetic Consonantist Psychology" (1938) and P. VENDRYES with his theory of regulations and autonomy (1942).

J.van GIGCH resumes the early history of G.S.T. as follows: "General Systems Theory did not originate with just a handful of thinkers. Several currents were present at its inception. Concepts connected with open systems were developed concurrently in thermodynamics and biology in the 1930s" (1978, p.58).

From 1929 on L.von BERTALANFFY and J.H. WOODGER proposed the basic concepts of organismic biology, that were to lead BERTALANFFY to the first definite formulation of a General Systems Theory in 1950. (See bibliography in L.von BERTALANFFY (1949 & 1950).

van GIGCH pursues: "Equifinality was introduced by von BERTALANFFY in 1940, The contrast between inanimate and living nature was described by BRILLOUIN in 1949, Examples of open systems in ecology, neurological systems and philosophy were made evident in the 1950s in publications by WHITACKER, KRECH and BENTLEY respectively.

"General Systems Theory is the result of other fundamental contributions such as those of:

"1. John von NEUMANN (1948), who developed a General Theory of Automata and laid the foundations of Artificial Intelligence.

"2. C.E. SHANNON's work in Information Theory (1948), by which the concept of amount of information was developed around Communications Theory.

"3. Norbert WIENER'S Cybernetics (1948), by which the concepts of entropy, disorder, amount of information and uncertainty were related to each other and their importance emphasized in the context of systems,

"4. W. Ross ASHBY (1956)", developed the concepts of Cybernetics, self-regulation, and self-direction around the ideas originally conceived by WIENER and SHANNON" (p.58-9).

van GIGCH also traces sources outside thermodynamics, biology and cybernetics:

"KOEHLER represents the early attempts to state the manner in which systems properties regulate the behavior of the components and, hence, the behavior of the system.

"REDFIELD '" brings out both the continuity and the great variety and complexity of the transitional bridging the biological and sociocultural levels" (p.59).

Still other important precursors were:

B. RUSSELL and A.N. WHITEHEAD whose theory of logical types cleared the way for a better theory of the observer and for constructivism.

KOEHLER, KOFFKA and others represent the contibution of Gestalt psychology.

A. ANGYAL, as early as 1941, formulated very clearly the basics of a "logic of systems" (1969, p.17-29).

E.A. SINGER's studies about mechanicism, vitalism and naturalism (1946) were influential on C. WEST CHURCHMAN, R.L. ACKOFF, J.van GIGCH and others.

A detailed history of Systemics and Cybernetics does not yet exist and would be a timely contribution to the history of 20th century's science and philosophy of science.

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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