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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DESCRIPTION (Self-) 2)3)

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H. PATTEE states: "The fundamental fact of life – a fact of such universality that it may be used to define life – is that living systems contain their own description" (1977, p.259).

This fact is closely related to autopoiesis, which would be impossible without the existence of a specific template, containing the basic traits of any individualized entity. Self-description also would be a condition for self-reproductive artificial automata.

Nevertheless, L. LÖFGREN observes: "It is important to clarify PATTEE's statement that "complete self-description of any system is a physical impossibility, though not a logical of formal impossibility". LÖFGREN observes: "If complete self-description is meant to describe all of the description process itself (including both description and interpretation), then it is logically impossible. This has been shown by TARSKY, and somewhat later by GÖDEL" (1979, p.247).

The uncompleteness of self-description explains why no system is ever able to reproduce itself forever. It is autonomous and organizationally closed, but never independent of basic conditions that transcend it.

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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