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

RULE-BOUND HUMAN SYSTEMS 4)

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P.A. BALLONOFF enounced a "Theory of Rule-bound Human Systems"(1994, p. 837-860), whose main features are as follows.

Human systems are generally rule-bound, because they could not maintain themselves otherwise.

They create their own rules and when these rules stabilize, they become codified (by custom, or law) and turn imperative for the behavior of the various social groups and their members.

As stated by BALLONOFF, the system has become "rule-bounded"and the rules affect "human choices and actions".

While the author only alludes sketchily to the fact, in many cases people try to escape from the rules and parallel rules systems appear (as for ex. barter, fraud and smuggling rings, mafia, monopolies). Rule- bound systems may crash if they become inefficient. BALLONOFF shows that rule-boundness in human systems is practically universal. The French anthropologist C. LEVI-STRAUSS, for ex. described archaic groups which are rule-bound in his "Elementary structures of kinship"(1949)

BALLONOFF exposes in his paper a formal theory of rule-bound human systems, which is useful in order to avoid implicit (or even explicit!) contradictions between rules, specially when transformed into laws and regulations. This becomes very significant at the constitutional level.

Models of rule-bound systems have practical value for prescriptions of policy, for anticipation and forecasting.

Moreover specific types of rules apply to specific types of systems. For ex. rules relative to monopolies or oligopolies may be different in small or large economic systems.

Finally BALLONOFF discusses the evolution of rule-bound systems in general (p.850-2) and shows that, while for ex. insects societies whose rules are "coded by biochemistry" and are "very, very stable", contemporary human systems rules turn much less permanently settled and, consequently "explicit rules for how to change the rules" are needed.

→ Evolution; Free-will; Logic and Culture; Operator (Decision; Observation; Pragmatic); Stigmergy

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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