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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ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE 3)

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J.D. BARROW and F.J. TIPPLER formulated this principle (1986). According to them, the nature of the physical world must necessarily be such that the perceptive and intelligent observer's existence be possible.

A universe without witnesses would of course be a different universe… or would it "exist", i.e. is existence possible without self-consciousness (even of a part observing the whole – or at least a larger fragment of the whole)?

It is difficult to evaluate the possible systemic meanings of these recollections from PLATO and BERKELEY. Whiffs of solipsism are floating around!

A more acceptable view of the Anthropic Principle would be that the coherence of multiple characteristics of the universe as we know it (microphysic and macrophysic constants, space-time characteristics, gravitation, etc.) merely implies that our own existence as conscious observers (after a very long evolutive process!) became possible, or even normal.

But this kind of extraordinary stretched cosmical tautology does not lead to any new and significant rational development. It may be more useful for theology than for science. WALD, 1994, p. 123-31)

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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