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

KNOWLEDGE as a control on behavior 1)

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According to F. HEYLIGHEN, "Knowledge can be defined as the ability to choose adequate actions from the repertoire, where adequate means: securing the survival of the system within its environment. Knowledge selects actions from the variety of potential actions, in the same way that natural selection selects by destroying inadequately behaving systems. The difference is that knowledge does not destroy actual systems, it only eliminates potentialities. Knowledge can thus be defined as a substitute or vicarious selector, which internally represents – and thus allows the anticipation of – the selective action of the environment (see CAMPBELL, 1974)" (pers. com.).

Knowledge is, of course, subjective (i.e. proper to an observer) and thus merely plausible, which means that its adequateness cannot be totally guaranteed.

HEYLIGHEN makes another important point: "What distinguish knowledge from control in the more traditional sense, is that cognitive control does not depend on a specific, fixed goal that the system is supposed to achieve. The only, very broadly defined goal is survival of the identity… " (Ibid).

In other words, knowledge is a tool for organizational closure.

And: "Moreover, cognitive control is supposed to cope with a complex environment, and will in that way have to represent as much as possible features of that environment that are relevant to survival" (Ibid).

Here again, the practical results depend on the quality of the "maps" (KORZYBSKI) or the models (ASHBY).

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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