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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AWARENESS 1)5)

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The awakening of alertness and attention triggered by any specific perception.

Awareness is frequently used as a synonym for consciousness. This seems to be rather unfortunate, as consciousness is the ultimate state of awareness, if used in the meaning of a capacity to reflect on one's own perceptions, as integrated and more or less clearly formulated by a human brain.

However, as expressed by F. Capra, this is "a key character of human consciousness". Thus "for a thorough understanding of the general process of cognition in living systems it is thus important to understand how human consciousness, with its abstract thought and symbolic concepts, arises out of the cognitive process that is common to all living organisms"(1997, p. 286)

In fact, awareness in its first state, can be only minimally distant from non-awareness. An example could be the passage from a merely dim perception of cold weather to a much clearer perception of what it means for the observer: 1 )"It feels very cold. 2) Let me have a look on the thermometer for a more precise evaluation"

Awareness leads to focused attention and normally to a more selective orientation of perception, that may in last resort become clearly intentional. This sequence can already be observed in animals like dogs or chimpanzees

In many cases it leads to specific action and is thus a prime mover of selective behavior.

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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