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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.

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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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CALCULUS FOR SELF-REFERENCE 2)

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This logical calculus has been introduced by F. VARELA as an extension of G. SPENCER BROWN's calculus of indications aiming "… to encompass all occurences of self-referential situations" (VARELA, 1975, p.5).

VARELA explains: "This is done through the introduction of a third state in the form of indication, a state seen to arise autonomously by self-indication" (Ibid).

This third state represents the unavoidable organizational closure of the observer. In VARELA's words: "… a third, not so obvious but distinct domain, of a self-referential autonomous state which other laws govern and which cannot be reduced by the laws of the dual domains. If we do not incorporate this third domain explicitly in our field of view, we force ourselves to find ways to avoid it as has been traditional) and to confront it, when it appears, in paradoxic forms" (Ibid., p.19).

Known, assumed and well understood self-reference leads to a quite different viewpoint in comparison to unconsciousness of self-reference (see "Self-reference in logic").

For a complete development of this calculus, see VARELA'S reference.

→ Laws of form

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

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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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