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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GENERALIST (Role of the) 1)4)

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Already in 1955, L.von BERTALANFFY quoted a number of authors who, in 1949, emphasized the necessity to count with generalists and defined their role as follows: "Any research group needs a generalist, whether it is an institutional group in a university or a foundation, or an industrial group. In an engineering group, the generalist would naturally be concerned with system problems. These problems arise whenever parts are made into a balanced whole" (H. BODE et al, 1949).

R. RODRIGUEZ DELGADO states: "The intervention of generalists is necessary, specially in the first orientation stage. They do not need to be "teachers" in the common sense of the word, but "resource persons" that could advice about the materials in which systemic concepts are better expressed, explain difficult subjects, and act as "conciliators" trying to find complementarity in concepts apparently opposed. They should try to unveil the causes of "real" conflicts of interests and ideas… It is convenient to train the learners for finding, by themselves common sets of interlinked general concepts related to natural and human sciences, demonstrating their unity and diversity" (1990, p.8).

A generalist is also normally specialized in some field. But he should have a good overall understanding of the various disciplines referring to aspects influencing the whole to which his/her research is centered (or influencing the significant environment of this whole). In order to obtain such a reference viewpoint, the generalist needs a language of second order or meta-models giving her/him the potential to understand concepts and models used in other disciplines.

The numerous global man-made disasters which occured before and since the emergence of systemics fully justify these views, which are also applicable to the satisfactory operation of economic, social and political institutions as well as to their complex interrelations.

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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