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

SOCIOGNOSIS 1)3)4)

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The understanding of a society by itself.

This definition is in some sense highly unsatisfactory, because it endows a collective abstraction- "society"- with a capacity for self awareness and knowledge. Let us in this case use the word simply as short-hand and in brackets.

Only individual historians and sociologists are able to offer their interpretation of their own (or other) "society" as it was at some time in the past and as it is supposed to be presently. Their opinions are- or not- known and accepted by a majority of the members of the considered "society".

In any case, what a "society" believes of itself and of other "societies"is of absolutely fundamental importance as a prime mover of its behavior. In many cases, it can even make it stupid or criminal. Such aspects were described and criticized more than one century ago by G.LE BON (1895) and S. SIGHELE (1892)

A reasonably credible sociognosis should be constructed (always in a provisional way) by a wide consensus among historians and sociologists. The study of societies as complex congeries, or peculiar types of systems, could be a useful methodology.

→ Autognosis; Social emergence; Social field; Social system; Sociogenesis; Socio-historic system; Sociolysis; Sociotechnical system

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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