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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DECISIONS (Collective) 4)

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The global results of very numerous individual decisions taken simultaneously.

Of course, the global effects observed are nobody's personal responsability. But, as observed by W. HARMAN, we should seek a way "toward resolution of the fundamental dilemma that the resultant of the microdecisions is so typically an unsatisfactory macrodecision" (1972, p.91). As noted by HARMAN the solution should not depend on Adam SMITH "invisible hand", nor on manipulation by a technocratic elite or by irresponsible bureaucracies. Rather, in HARMAN's words "it depends on re-education to perceive suitable macrodecisions and appropriate microdecisions to lead toward them, and on a shift in cultural values to support the process" (Ibid).

The issue of global pollution, and the global decisions to be taken and applied, in all their complexity, is a very good example, among many others.

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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