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

"SYSTÈME GÉNÉRAL" (Diagram of the) 2)

J.L.LE MOIGNE proposes a general model of system, which he calls "Système Général" and whose diagram he characterizes as follows:

"… An object, in an environment, endowed with finalities, which engages in an activity and whose internal structure undergoes an evolution through time, without however to loose its unique identity:

"In a more trivial way, but possibly easier to remember:

- something (anything that can be identified)

- which do something (activity = function)

- and which, endowed with a structure

- evolves in time

- within something (environment)

- for some reason (finality)

or, yet:

- an object active within an environment structured in relation to some evolving finalities" (1977, p.37).

We should however take time to reflect seriously about the meaning of terms like structure or finality. It would also probably be better to avoid the term evolve and speak of adaptive transformations for the systems which maintain their identity.

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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