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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.

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DISTINCTIONS (Cinematics of) 3)

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According to F. HEYLIGHEN, "The cinematics of distinctions can be viewed as a general description of possible processes involving distinctions. For a given type of distinction there are four types of processes:

"1. Conservation of the distinction: This can be modeled by a one-to-one, bijective function, corresponding to a process reversible and predictable" (1990a, p.427).

The author probably means that past states of the process confirm the distinctions.

"2. Destruction of distinctions, but without creation of new ones: This can be modeled by a many-to-one, surjective function, corresponding to a process predictable, but irreversible

"3. Creation of new distinctions, together with maintenance of the existing ones: This can be modeled by a one-to-many relation (not a function) corresponding to a process reversible but not predictable" (It is not clear in which sense such a process could be reversible).

"4. Creation of distinctions together with destruction of distinctions: This can be modeled by a many-to-many relation, corresponding to a process, irreversible and unpredictable" (p.427-8)

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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