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

MODEL (Prescriptive) 2)

A model that can be used "to prescribe operations by which a conceived man-made object can be built" (G. KLIR, 1991, p.84).

KLIR states that: "The construction of prescriptive models… is usually referred to as systems design" (p.84). This is true, but unfortunate, because this bonafide engineering terminology has been extended to the design of human systems and, in not a few cases, contaminated this latter endeavor with restrictive mechanistic views.

KLIR explains in a detailed way the two principal stages of the construction of a prescriptive model:

"The aim of the first stage is to formulate the design problem on the basis of the conceived object to be designed…

"The second stage… consists in constructing a system that implements the required relations in terms of the interpreted systems representing the chosen technological primitives and which satisfies the required objective criteria and constraints" (p.84-5).

A good example of such a process would be the progression from the general idea of a new type of car, to the precise blueprints, the planning of retooling, adaptation of the production line and generally related organizational conditions.

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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