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

MATERIALISM (Emergent) 2)3)5)

← Back

A theory that explains the relations between brain and mental states by considering the latter as a part of emerging states of the brain which however do not exist within the cerebral cells, the synapses, the dendrites or any other neural element (after R. RODRIGUEZ DELGADO, 1993a, p.258).

Mental activity depends upon the existence and good working order of the cerebral cortex: without this specific cerebral activity – different from the vegetative functions, which are controlled by other parts of the brain – it cannot exist.

The Spanish neurologist J.M. RODRIGUEZ DELGADO lists as follows the essential conditions of mental activity:

"1. A corporeal structure endowed with a normal physiology, able to provide oxygen, nutrients and other elements of cellular metabolism and able to eliminate the wastes.

"2. Sensorial receptors, which are the exclusive entries for the information inputs from within or without the organism.

"3. A functioning brain, endowed with the mechanisms needed for reception, circulation and emission of messages.

"4. Organs able to receive and express the orders and messages of the brain" (1993, p.297-8).

According to J.M. RODRIGUEZ DELGADO, emergent materialism is the most flexible hypothesis and at the same time the most helpful one for research on mental phenomena in terms of usual scientific techniques.

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:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint