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

ANALOGY 3)

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"A resemblance between the relations among things (rather than between the things themselves) (Adapted from J.W. SUTHERLAND, 1973, p.122)

K. KRIPPENDORFF states: "In the theory of models, an analogy between two systems is explained by one simpler system that models both, but by different homomorphisms" (1986, p.3) An analogy is thus a limiting conceptual constraint.

According to J.W. SUTHERLAND: "… the analogy is in the first and last instance a conceptual device designed to call attention to isomorphisms, and to engine the attempt to induce causality specific to a phenomenon by imposing a general causality" (p.123)

The first aspect does not seem objectionable. However, the second one could easily lead to dangerously sweeping generalizations by "embracing creeds" (POPPER, quoted by SUTHERLAND – p.117)

Further on, SUTHERLAND adds: "… analogies are properly used… as masks with which an a priory chaotic situation can be at least partially ordered, subsequent to empirical validation of the causality proposed by the mask. Grand operational principles then, in the hands of the serious scientist, simply become systemic, encompassing heuristics whose utility lies not in their reification but in their perspective".(p.127)

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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