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

UNBOUNDED SYSTEMS THINKING (UST) 1)4)

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An Inquiry System in which "everything interacts with everything" (I.I. MITROFF and H.A. LlNSTONE, 1993, p.91).

In UST "all branches of inquiry depend fundamentally on one another, and… the widest possible array of disciplines, professions, and branches of knowledge – capturing distinctly different paradigms of thought – must be consciously brought to bear on our problems.

"In UST, the traditional hierarchical ordering of the sciences and the professions – as well as the pejorative bifurcation of the sciences into "hard" versus "soft" is replaced by a circular concept of relationship between them. In UST, everyone of the sciences and professions is considered fundamental; none is superior to or better than any other" (p.91).

UST introduces a Multiple Perspective Method (see corresponding heading), characterized by a triple perspective:

"T. The Technical Perspective

O. The Organizational or Societal Perspective

P. The Personal or Individual Perspective" (p.99).

The authors insist on the following aspects in using the method:

"- Strive for a balance among T, O and P perspectives

- Use "good" judgment in selecting perspectives

- In obtaining information, recognize that O and P require greatly different methods than T

- Pay particular attention to the mutual impact, interdependencies, and integration of perspectives

- Beware of thinking statically in dynamic environments" (p.107-8).

And "UST is fundamentally a transdisciplinary Inquiry System. That is, UST does not believe that we can "solve" important problems within the current structure of the disciplines, professions, or the modern university. The various sciences and professions are the product of human organization. In this sense they are artifacts, not natural entities. As such, in working on every problem, we are also simultaneously working on how we organize ourselves to solve our problems" (p.109).

UST is yet one more example of the new focus on a transdisciplinary approach in order to avoid what WARFIELD call underconceptualization and de ZEEUW, invisibility.

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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