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

CYCLE (Cumulative) 1)2)

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The progressive development (or involution) by reciprocal feedback of two or more functions or subsystems in a system.

According to A. LOTKA, who proposed the concept: "The eye and the hand have probably contributed more than any other circumstance to the evolution of the human mind up to its present level. The possession of an agile member gave opportunity for exercise of the mental faculties, this in turn reacted towards increased development of the tactile sense and manipulative skill of the hand, and so in a cumulative cycle" (1956, p. 298).

This author also claims that language and thinking have interacted in the same mutual stimulating way.

This would be the equivalent of a virtuous circle. There seems however to exist cases where the reciprocal cumulative cycle has negative effects. It has been conjectured that such is the final effect of progressive gigantism in animal species and in organizations: The economy of scale, positive at the beginning of the process, turns a liability when the problems of internal communication and the cost they cause do finally become overburdening.

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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