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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MINIMAL PRINCIPLES 1)2)

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J.H. MILSUM found that: "A number of minimal principles, that is, equivalently optimality principles, are recognized in physics". Examples offered are FERMAT's Principles of least time propagation of light in media of different refractive indices; MAUPERTUIS's Principle of Least Action, and the "most general minimal principle of physics called HAMILTON's Principle".

MILSUM proposes "A generalized verbal formulation of such principles… as follows: The particular solution "selected" by a process in a physical system will be that one out of the possible family of solutions, all consistent with given constraints, which minimizes a certain "cost" (1968, p.46).

MILSUM proceeds with this comment, very basic from a systemic viewpoint: "The major drawback to universal application is that only conservative systems can be so treated" This is a result of "the ubiquity of dissipative phenomena" (Ibid).

The validity of any minimal principle is thus conditioned by the existence of steady-states thermodynamics, but ceases in far-from equilibrium conditions.

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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