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.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

COGNITIVE COMPRESSION 3)

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The reduction of the complexity of conceptual structures through categorization.

This concept has been introduced by P. CHURCHLAND.

Cognitive compression is operated, or at least expressed through language which, according to A. and H. DAMASIO "… helps to categorize the world and to reduce the complexity of conceptual structures to a manageable scale" (1992, p.63).

Thus a process of abstraction (also described by the structural differential of A. KORZYBSKI) becomes practically operative as "the cognitive economies of language – its facility for pulling together many concepts under one symbol – make it possible for people to establish even more complex concepts and use them to think at levels that would otherwise be impossible" (Ibid).

The authors give two examples, widely different.

The first one is the general concept of "screwdriver", which does not create real difficulties. The second one, however, "democracy", implies some serious problems, as would any abstract "label" (to use KORZYBSKI's term), because the content of such compressed categories may be – and frequently is – dubious, as open to cultural or ideological manipulation (propaganda, brain washing, etc…).

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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