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

DIFFERENCE 3)

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A variation in perception, behavior or thought triggered by one or various bits of information.

The perception of a difference starts with the observation of some specific discontinuity between the background and the object. Any system is in this way separated from its background by the observer, as the first step to its study.

As to the way this is done, in BATESON 's words: "… a single difference may be the yes or- no answer to a question of any degree of complexity, at any level of abstraction" (1973, p.244).

→ F. HEYLIGHEN's concept of "distinction". In the mental sphere: "A bit of information is definable as a difference which makes a difference" (BATESON, Ibid).

Thus, differences are not necessarily new in the objects or elements themselves, nor in the in-between space: they affect relations as they are perceived.

Indeed, observers (i .e. self-referential systems, organizationally closed), in E. STEINER and L. REITER 's words: "… can refer only to their own states and the difference between these states" (1989, p.232).

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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