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

SYSTEM (Self-organizing) 2)

1. A system that construct itself by joining parts formerly separated.

This is the transit from no-organization to organization.

This meaning, according to W.R. ASHBY, who proposed it (see 1981, p.58), is "simple and unobjectionable". It possibly looks simple because we see it at work so frequently. However the initial conditions, causes and ways of the shaping of specific links and interactions among the newly connecting elements in this autogenesis process still remain relatively obscure.

Thereafter, still in ASHBY's words the system changes "from a bad organization to a good one". "Bad" seems unluckily valorative. In any case, the system must first of all come into existence, a process now quite well explained by V. CSANYI's models of the zero system and its autogenic precursors (1989, 1993). It can then change from a simpler to a more complex type of organization, or from one type to another one, in accordance with varying internal or external conditions. This lead us to the second definition.

2. "A system able, with no explicit outside help, of improving its performance while pursuing its goals" (Adapted from G. KLIR, 1991, p.156).

This is obtained by modifying (see preceding entry) the organization of the interactions between the elements of the system.

This kind of processes has been investigated by H. HAKEN (synergetics) and also through the study of networks progressing toward a more ordered organization. Self-organization is also closely related to the emergence of autopoiesis, because an already existing system is "organizationally closed" and thus able to modify its internal structures and processes only within very narrow limits. This is the case for ex., of any living system.

Finally, giant fluctuations in dissipative systems far-from-equilibrium (I. PRIGOGINE et al.) may be conducive to the emergence of a higher level of organization, a process also possibly more related to autogenesis than to self-organization.

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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