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

SYSTEMS (Domain of): "The field over which they extent" 1)

← Back

J.van GIGCH, who gives this definition classifies as follows the domain of systems:

"1. Systems are living or nonliving

2. Systems are abstract or concrete

3. Systems are open or closed

4. Systems exhibit a high or low order of entropy or disorder

5. Systems display organized simplicity, unorganized complexity or organized complexity

6. Systems can be ascribed a purpose

7. Feedback exists

8. Systems are ordered in hierarchies

9. Systems are organized" (1978, p.40)

Item 3 is somewhat ambiguous (see corresponding entries, and "isolated system"). Points 5 and 9 could be coordinated.

Since 1978, the systems field has enlarged. We should now add to van GIGCH's list:

10. Systems can be deterministic, markovian or chaotic, i.e. more or less stable or unstable

11. Systems are natural or artificial (artefacts)

12. Systems either adapt, or evolve

13. Systems are allopoietic (artefacts) or autopoietic (organizationally closed)

As systemics is still in the making, there may still be more to it!.

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]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint