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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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CHOICE as a systemic topic 1)4)

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From the systemic viewpoint, choice is a very complex topic.

According to R.L. ACKOFF and F. EMERY, in a situation of choice a subject has to decide between various (or at least two) possible courses of action, affected with different probabilities (1972, p.146).

As a rational election among options, it thus supposes a good understanding of the nature, the needs and the situation of the system which is to make a choice.

However, what is understood as rationality refers solely to the logical aspect of choice, while a systemist must also take in account psychological, social and cultural aspects in their most ample sense. In G. VICKERS words: "… choice involves valuing, and valuing is by implication excluded from the rational process. No calculus can compare the relative values of atom bombs and medicare" (1957, p.64).

He could have added that, even if such a calculus could be made in economic or financial terms, for instance, such a problem is never put in that kind of mental frame.

In particular, collective choice is a matter of cultural consensus, in most cases neither logical or economic.

For the systemist, the problem of choice is thus multi-dimensional.

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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