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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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MATHEMATICS (Polysemy in) 2)3)

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In his book "Facts of Science ", V.V. NALIMOV observes that polysemy has now also appeared in the language of mathematics (1981 b, p.75)". He writes that, from Gödel's theorem "it follows that human thinking is richer than its deductive formulation" (Ibid)

This new mathematical polysemy resulted (quite recently) of the use of mathematics "for describing poorly organized, diffuse systems… (as) the requirements placed on mathematical descriptions have become less strict. Whereas the description of real phenomena in mathematical language was earlier regarded as the expression of a law of nature, now it has become possible to speak of mathematical models which may all simultaneously be legitimate"(Ibid)

Nalimov adds, further on, that "this polymorphism of the language of applied mathematics increases its flexibility"(Ibid)

However he feels clearly some qualms about this evolution. He escapes more or less from these by defining mathematical models "as a question to Nature asked by a Researcher" " Matters like computer modelling technique or fuzzy algorithms- of enormous practical usefulness are surely pertaining to this type of "questions asked". Are mathematics turning from deductive to inductive… and even possibly abductive?

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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