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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CIRCUIT (Causal) 1)2)

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A circuit which "will generate a non-random response to a random event" (G. BATESON, 1973, p.380).

BATESON emphasizes that this will happen "at that position in the circuit at which the random event occurred"… and adds: "This is the general requisite for the creation of cybernetic restraint in any variable at any given position".( Ibid)

ASHBY's concept of constraint is obviously synonym of BATESON's one of restraint.

The causal circuit as a cybernetic device "will be activated by changes in rate and…, when activated, will operate upon some variable… in such a way as to diminiish the change in rate" (Ibid).

The notion of causal circuit introduces necessarily the system's view and, moreover, the dynamic dimension of systems.

W.R. WINBURN puts it as follows: "(logical dilemma, like the Epimenides paradox) arise from the inability of logic to consider time in the description of a causal process. When time is not considered, the ability of a circuit to issue opposite responses to identical stimuli presents a contradiction. The difference between the description of a linear causal process independent of time and a description of a causal circuit in which time matters is analogous to a difference of logical type. The time-dependent behavior of circuits forces us to abandon the level of individual parts and see instead a "system" that responds as a whole" (1991, 559).

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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