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

DEVELOPMENT (Biological) 1)2)

← Back

According to F. BAILLY, F. GAILL & R. MOSSERI, the development of biological systems is submitted to the four following specifications:

1. Endomorphism: "… autonomy of an entity whose developing rules are internal and given once for all (genetic endowment), correlated and organizational closured (in the autopoietic sense- MATURANA and VARELA)"

2. Discontinuity: corresponding to a "development by way of alterning of activity and latency, critical periods and punctuated sequences"

3. Recursivity: "corresponding to a principle of informative economy by the application of only one formal law, reiterated at every step of the development"

4. Nonlinearity: "corresponding to the process of growing complexification paired with iteration…(a linear iteration would be merely additive and could not explain progressive, structural and functional complexification" (1991, p.58).

An example of linear iteration is crystal growth.

It would be interesting to consider the validity of these specifications:

a) for the general problem of evolution (crf. GOULD-ELDREDGE's punctuated evolution).

b) in the case of more or less integrated social systems, such as ant nests, beehives, enterprises, human societies.

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