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

WHOLES as Parts, parts as WHOLES 1)2)

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Any system is part of the environment in which it is inserted and this environment is, from this viewpoint, a supra- or metasystem.

Conversely, any part of a system may generally be considered, in turn and at its own level, as a whole, within which parts can be identified.

FEIBLEMAN and FRIEND wrote: "Subparts, parts and wholes are the three levels necessary to constitute an organization" (1969, p.49).

Of course, there may be quite more than three levels, as shown in living systems by J.G. MILLER.

We should try to avoid a false dichotomy between parts and wholes. While, according to M. MARUYAMA, "There is no "whole" prior to parts" (1976, p.204), this author presents the "mutualistic view": "… there are only parts, and parts create a system of interaction" (Ibid).

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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