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

SYSTEMICS vs SYSTEMATICS? 1)2)3)

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Systematics is mostly an arbitrary mode of classification. One example would be arranging a collection of books according to the color of their cover.

However, some classifications, at first sight arbitrary, may finally reveal an underlying general order.

This was the case for example with MENDELEIEV's table of elements, whose regularities are consequences of the atomic structures, that were unknown at the time.

There may thus be a progressive shift from systematics to systemics as the apparently arbitrary order is found out to conceal an algorithm, which in turn reflects a general mode of organization, i.e. significant correlations or interrelations among the classified items. Such relations then become the groundwork for the study of organized complexity, i.e. systemics.

Systematics can thus be used as a heuristic tool in systemics. However, a previous general understanding of the systemic paradigm is necessary, in order to understand what to search for.

It is to be noted that a purely systematic view impairs many times the perception of systemic order and even leads to spurious orderings of data. Serious cases have been observed in economics and in experimental psychology, for example.

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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