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.

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IDEAL-TYPE 2)3)

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"An abstraction which emphasizes certain properties which are felt to be distributed among real-world entities, and emphasizes them in such a way as to produce a highly directive and normative model" (J.W. SUTHERLAND, 1973, p.44).

According to SUTHERLAND, "The model is directive (if not operationally, at least experimentally) in that it provides the major premises from which some logical conclusions may be drawn" (Ibid).

The use of ideal-types is subjacent to any taxonomy: "… an ideal-type is one element in an array of ideal-types which, as a set, constitutes a proper taxonomy".(Ibid., p.45).

One should always be careful not to confuse ideal-types for the entities they represent. For the way ideal-types are constructed, see KORZYBSKI's Structural differencial (1950).

Of course, in SUTHERLAND's words:"… taxonomies and ideal-types are themselves theories" (p.68).

SUTHERLAND distinguishes mechanical and organic ideal-types (p.97).

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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