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

DECOMPOSITION 2)

← Back

The construction of a model of a system in such a way as to conspicuously show its subsystems and/or elements.

M. TODA and E. SHUFORD state: "For a decomposition to be meaningful, there must be some means to obtain information about the state of each subsystem generated by the decomposition" (1965, p.8).

According to J.van GIGCH, decomposition allows "the decentralization of authority and of tasks" (1978, p.589).

There is a reductionist way and a systemic one to build a decomposed model of a system.

The first one is mainly interested in the elements themselves, because they are supposed to conceal the fundamental nature of the system. A good example is the quest for the basic, ultimate elementary particles in micro-physics.

The systemic decomposition seeks to understand the significant interrelations among the structural-functional parts of the system, i.e. the critical subsystems (In J.G. MILLER's sense).

Both types of decompositions are interesting and useful in their own way. In many cases, they could – and should – be used in a complementary way.

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