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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LAW 3)

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"A statement, together with its qualifications, that postulates a constraint on the conceivable observations and that is not contradicted by observations or counter examples" (K. KRIPPENDORFF, 1986, p.43)

The 19th century science tended to consider scientific laws as kinds of absolute platonician revelations about the "nature of nature".

KRIPPENDORFF echoes Gödelian, Popperian as well as constructivists viewpoints when writing: "Inasmuch as they exclude something, laws are constructions, not to be confused with observable facts". Moreover "… they are often self-referential" (Ibid).

It also seems difficult to think about "systemic" laws. Systemics reasons about patterns, processes, functions, structures, etc…, but in terms of models, homomorphic or, at best, isomorphic, to which only very few systemists, if any, seem disposed to recognize an absolute truth value.

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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