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

CAUSALITY (Cyclic) 2)3)

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"A cyclic causal relationship (is)… a sequence of coupled cause-effect relationships that leads back to its starting point: A – B – C -… A" (HEYLIGHEN, 1989, p.374).

However "It is only possible to move toward the future, not toward the past" (p.375). Thus, cyclic causality does not imply reversibility. Or, as stated by HEYLIGHEN: "If a distinguishable change has occured, then at the global level (i.e.the level where all observed distinctions are taken into account), there was no real causal cycle and it is possible to define an absolute ordering between all the events in the causal chain" (p.377).

To avoid this type of ambiguity, it should probably be advisable to avoid the voice "Cyclic causality", or even "Circular causation" (as obsrved by R.N. ADAMS – 1988, p.68) and to speak, for example of "causality by recurrent feedback".

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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