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

"LAWS": Biological and social 1)4)

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According to A. RAPOPORT, quoted by J.W. SUTHERLAND, "… we must face the fact that there are no biological or social "laws" that are direct analogues of the laws of motion, the law of gravity, the conservation laws of energy and mass, the law of increase of entropy in isolated systems, etc. At most, there are models of specific biological or social phenomena, expressible as mathematical formulae to serve as working hypotheses" (1973, p.25).

This is altogether true for so-called "systemic" laws which, if possible to enounce, would refer only to totally abstract models of systems.

It should be added that, generally these models are based in new mathematical tools as for example input-output matrixes, graphs, fuzzy sets, "catastrophes", fractals, etc. These models are basically non-linear, generally structural and/or dynamic, and aim at the representation of interactions, global form and complex transformations.

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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