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

METAMODELING 2)3)

"A process of design which is carried out at the metalevel, and by which we define how the process of modeling (at the object level of abstraction), is to be carried out. (J.van GIGCH, 1992 p.3)

In another work, van GIGCH commented: "Until recently, the accepted approach to problem-solving consisted of the formulation of a model and applying the solution obtained from the model to the real world. However, this methodology bypasses the important step of metamodeling, that is setting the rules of logic by which the model itself is to be designed. Metamodeling, or the Science of Modeling, is involved with designing metamodels and with designing the process of design" (1978, p.3).

In his more recent paper, van GIGCH adds: "Metamodeling defines the epistemology or design foundations of modeling", (thus establishing the foundations "… of the reasoning process, guarantees of truth, proofs, axioms of validity, or any other logic which underlies a methodology" (Ibid).

Decision making should ever be framed within a metamodeling level, which implicitly involves cultural and social values: It is now time to verify the fitness of any model, specially those of complex systems (frequently very much partial and biased as they are), in order to protect ourselves against the side effects that some important but neglected aspects of the modelized situation may bring in their wake.

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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