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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CATALYSIS 1)5)

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The recurrent action of an element in a system, which activates some process.

This is a systemic extension of the classical chemical model of catalysis.

M. ZELENY observes that "…it is unreasonable to assume that the catalyst is unaffected by its participation in the production of links. Each single act of production diminishes its catalytic power. Initially, when there is a lot of free substrate, the number of produced links is naturally very high. At the same time, the number of holes necessary for disintegration is still very low" (1977).

However, the catalyst uses up the substrate and, as a consequence, finds less opportunities to act. It is its own activity which limits, and finally suppresses its capacity for activity.

This seems to open avenues for the explanation of what ZELENY calls "built-in death" of autopoietic organizations.

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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