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

ELEMENTS as COMPONENTS 1)

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When elements combine with each others, their individual properties become deeply modified.

An hydrogen atom when independent, possesses characteristics which become hidden and merely potential when combined within a water molecule. This last one, in turn, is modified when included in a cell (as a part of some biochemical product) and the cell itself, included in an organ acquires and loses some properties.

Such is also the case in composite systems: a migrant locust within a flight of millions of other locusts loses some of its individual patterns of behavior and acquires others, as for example a permanently defined flight orientation.

It is however in the strongly integrated systems that the elements are most modified, up to the point that their new characteristics become irreversible: they cannot anymore return to an independent state, nor survive if severed from the system.

The terms "element" and "component", while widely used as synonyms, have thus somewhat different meanings.

"Element" implies an overtone of basic simplicity and clearly defined individuality, which are at least partly results of the way we reduce the system to its parts. "Component" is characterized by its membership in the system.

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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