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

PERCEPTION (Ecological) 2)3)

J.J. GIBSON developed an ecological theory of perception akin to J.von ÜEXKULL's "Bedeutungslehre" (Science of significances) (1934, 1979). He writes, for instance: "Knee-high for a child is not the same as knee-high for an adult, so the affordance is relative to the size of the individual" (1986, p.128).

GIBSON's theory is basically about visual perception ("Ecological optics"), indeed generally the most used and important tool for our observation of the world.

It is based on ecological observation by living beings, principally what these living observers "make" of what they see, how they see what they see and to which uses they put their perceptions (see "affordance": What are the uses of what they see for any of them, on the base of their tacit knowledge).

GIBSON's theory implies:

1) That perception is based on the general conditions proper to this planet: gravitation level, imperceptible curvature, atmospheric density and transparency (compared for ex. with the characteristics of the aquatic medium).

2) That each observer needs to train her/himself in ecologically satisfactory interpretations of her/his perceptions. This is tantamount to PIAGET's ontology of knowledge, to von FOERSTER's 2nd cybernetics and to autopoiesis. Perception is not a response to a stimulus (a mere "brief and discrete application of energy to a sensitive surface") (p.57), but an act of information pick-up. It thus implies the construction of inner rules of interpretation, based for each species (and individual) in its sensorial equipment.

GIBSON's concept seems important for our ways to define and use perceived entities, and our relations to them.

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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