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

STRUCTURE and EVOLUTION 1)

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Structure, under its diachronic guise, is the repertory of those transformations acceptable for the system (i.e. corresponding to its variety content in ASHBY's sense).

Strictly speaking it would be better to say that systems do not evolve, but undergo transformations (allowed by their structure).

However, when "the alteration is so important as to become necessarily irreversible, an historical process takes place, giving birth to a new structure" (J.L.LE MOIGNE, after J.G. MILLER).

C. BRESCH in his comprehensive study of evolution (1977) observed that structure tends to be structurating, i.e. to generate complementary or countervailing structures.

He also explained that structures develop out of components, but within the limits of preexisting constraints.

→ Auto-genetic systems precursors; Coevolution; Structure (Conservative); Structure genesis (Law of); Zero-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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