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.

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TELEONICS 1)3)

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"A systems approach… which focuses primarily on the processes that characterize living systems, rather than on the levels and subsystems of which they consist".

This approach, developed by G.G. JAROS, attenuates the dichotomy between levels and the whole in systems. It seems more concerned with vertical unity than with horizontal strata.

According to JAROS: "In Teleonics, one does not speak of interaction between entities, but interaction between processes. By definition, processes have some kind of goal, end point or destination, which mayor may not be intentionally determined. We refer to this "go-for-it" quality as goal-relatedness, which can include goal-seeking as well as goal-directed behavior" (Contribution to the "Primer Handbook", work in progress, 1996)(Th. MANDEL)

It is in any case difficult to conceive processes that would not be proper to some entity, or entities without processes. However, the concept of process conveys better the understanding of a time dimension in systems.

It should be observed that N.A. COULTER Jr., himself inspired by J.E. GIBSON's "hierarchy of automatic control" proposed in 1968 a "theory of teleogenetic control systems" based on control systems able "to generate their own goals" and "exhibiting "goal seeking behavior… as a special mode of operation" (1968, p.85).

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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