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

DOMAIN 1)2)3)

"A closed universe of existence which we can never cross the boundary of, once we are in" (G. KAMPIS, 1989, p.89).

A domain delimits the set of possible transformations for a system. Domains are the results of the establishment of coordinated constraints. M. BODEN gives as an example the classical rules of harmony in music.

No important work can be done outside the constraints of some domain. New domains can be created only by breaking existing constraints, and replacing them with others, possibly less stringent, or more productive, or simply different.

This implies at least in some measure, that we are mental prisoners within ourselves (and should thus try to take the measure of our inner mental space).

The KAMPIS definition is inspired from G. SPENCER-BROWN and F. VARELA, i.e. is related to the concept of organizational closure, by virtue of which the system is maintaining its own organizational invariance.

KAMPIS comments: "The most important point is that a domain has its own structure that cannot be studied directly from another domain (for instance, by an observer), it can only be approximated by the internal structure of another domain. Of course, different domains might have parallel evolution and this enables the formulation of approximate scientific laws that represent, to some extent, what is going on in another domain. However, our original interest is in the things themselves and it is a disappointment (faced by scientists of this century) that they are not available directly" (p.89-90).

This aspect is important for systemic epistemology.

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]


We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible: