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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PERIODICITY (Linear) 2)

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Periodicity of a function which can be reduced to a combination of a set of simple linear functions, even if complex.

Writes F. ROBB: "The elucidation of such functions has been the overriding concern of scientific analysis. The results have often passed off as causal "explanation". From this point of view, a complex linear system is seen as being no more than the sum of its parts, and the behavior of the whole can be reduced to that of a simple operator" (1989, p.55).

However, complex systems are generally nonlinear. This is the rule when three or more initial conditions act simultaneously in different parts of the system. In this situation, the global determinism becomes highly complex and leads to a growing randomness which makes the behavior of the system more or less unpredictable.

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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