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

EQUILIBRIUM (Homeostatic) 1)2)

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A dynamic equilibrium, characterized by oscillations within more or less narrowly defined maxima and minima limits.

K. BOULDING described it as follows: "Equilibrium is simply a dynamic process in which the dynamic path of the system leads to a reproduction in successive states of some initial equilibrium state. "Staying the same" is simply a special case of "changing" (1972, p.68).

Homeostatic equilibrium does not allow for basic structural or functional changes in the system, i.e. is never evolutive, even if it is adaptive. It remains in basic accordance with the laws of classical thermodynamics.

L.von BERTALANFFY made the following comment: "If life, after disturbance from the outside, had simply returned to the so-called homeostatic equilibrium, it would never have progressed beyond the amoeba which, after all, is the best adapted creature in the world – it has survived billions of years from the primeval ocean to the present day. MICHELANGELO, implementing the precepts of psychology, should have followed his father's request and gone in the wool's trade, thus sparing himself lifelong anguish although leaving the Sistine Chapel unadorned" (1971, p.192).

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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