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

ARTIFACTS 1)

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"Things fashioned by rational beings with the help of some technique whether primitive or advanced" (M. BUNGE, 1979, p.209)

BUNGE comments: "An artifact is not just one more thing but a thing belonging to a kind that did not exist before the emergence of man or some other rational being. Artifacts may be regarded as constituting a whole new level of reality, namely the artiphysis… Artifacts are at the heart of human society and have properties absent from natural things" (Ibid).

It should however be remembered that the beginnings of rationality are ill-delimited: some apes make and use very simple artifacts, and also some Galapagos finches observed by DARWIN. Even spider's webs or beehives could be considered as artifacts constructed either by individuals or by collectivities, not obviously rational in the commonly accepted sense.

Construction of artifacts seem to be a living systems' capability still in full course of evolutive development.

The multiplication of artifacts deeply transforms the relation between man and the planetary ecosphere because it tends to create a global human invironment more and more distinct from the global environment.

The same effect is also present at more local levels: we are becoming "synthetic fishes in a plastic aquarium", with ever lessened contacts with our natural environment.

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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