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

COMPLEXITY (Conceptual framework for) 3)

← Back

R.L. FLOOD finds that systemic complexity depend on a number of characteristics as follows:

1- The system must included numerous parts

2- These parts must have numerous cross-relations or interrelations but must also have degrees of freedom (i.e. not be submitted to constraints so stringent that it becomes blocked)

3- Quite generally, the system is non-linear

Here FLOOD comments: " A feature of nonlinear systems is that different starting points can cause the system to become unstable. They are generally very difficult to understand and commonly "display" counter-intuitive behavior, a characteristic of our inability to comprehend complex systems" (1987, p.180).

4- The system is generally asymmetric, as a result of differential growth.

5- The system generally presents non-holonomic constraints.

FLOOD comments: "… parts of the system are temporarily outside central control and can in fact go off. Complexity may therefore arise when there is some sort of localized transient anarchy in the system" (p.181).

6- Complexity is also characterized by hierarchy, which means that the system's organization includes various levels, structurally different, needed for regulation and control.

7 – Complexity may appear or grow through emergence, i.e. the shaping of organization at a meta-or supra level.

All this is intrinsic complexity. However at human level of perceptions, values and beliefs still a new level of complexity appears" (p.182-3).

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]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint