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

MODALITY 3)

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A definite level in a classification of levels of action.

A theory of modalities has been introduced by H. DOOYEWEERD, as quoted by D.DE RAADT (1992, p.639). There are 15 levels in DOOYEWEERD's classification (which like any classification is debatable), starting from the "harder" to the "softer": numeric, spatial, kinematic, physical, biotic, sensitive, analytic, historic, lingual, social, economic, aesthetic, juridical, ethical and pistic (religious belief).

Starting from DOOYEWEERD's proposal, D.DE RAADT introduces "multi-modal thinking", an "essentially non-reductionistic" approach, which "assumes that for each of the fifteen modalities there is a corresponding epistemology which cannot be supplanted by and is as worthy as the epistemology of another modality… In themselves, no single epistemology is sufficient for a complete knowledge of the universe, but each contributes to a distinct outlook which, when merged with the others, give rise to a multi-modal thinking that discerns an object from every modal angle, leading to a coherent and wise understanding of the object" (Ibid).

Starting from this base, DE RAADT proposes "multi-modal design", which, for any system, starts by defining the various modal levels of interest, specifies the basic one and leads to an integrative study.

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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