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

ELEMENT and the AUTOPOIETIC SYSTEM (The) 1)2)4)

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F. ROBB writes: "The relationship between the individual and the institution is asymmetric. The autopoietic organization does not depend on any particular individuals, but is does use and constrain individuals to serve its own ends. Indeed, it must turn over individuals in order to preserve itself. Such organization uses human lifetime and stored skills, experience and knowledge, simply as a resource to maintain its autopoiesis" (1990, p.396).

This asymmetric interrelation is also present in living systems in general. It suffices to replace the word "individual" by "element" or "component", and "institution" and "organization" by "system".

However, while elements are submitted to systemic closure in physical systems, they also remain transient in these entities.

This seems similarly to be the case in artificial systems, as for example in a plane, or a computer ("spare parts").

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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