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

SYSTEMS KNOWLEDGE 1)3)

The body of concepts, principles, laws, methods and models that aim at the better understanding of complex concrete or abstract wholes.

As observed by G. KLIR, there is a progressive accretion of such elements going on since 1948 (with the first von NEUMANN, WIENER and SHANNON's research) (1991, p.219).

KLIR states that there are two basic ways to obtain systems knowledge:

- "mathematically derived knowledge", with the progressive emergence of formalisms specifically adapted to the study of complex systems" (numerous examples in this encyclopedia).

- "experimentally derived systems knowledge… obtained by performing and analyzing experiments with systems simulated on a computer or, possibly, in some other way".

KLIR believes that: "The computer plays undoubtedly the most important role in this respect and it is perfectly proper to view it as the systems science laboratory' (p.219-20). This will probably become still truer with connection machines and highly parallel ones.

However great care should be taken not to "artificialize" real situations were human observers and actors may introduce values, norms, motivations, prejudices, etc… practically impossible to translate in bits and bytes.

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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