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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ET CETERIS PARIBUS 1)3)

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This well known latin quotation whose meaning is "other things being equal" is in fact the banner concept of linear causality.

It is of course a pure abstraction. Context-free situations do not exist. There is not one single natural sequence of events in which all "other things are equal". It is also unsound to postulate the identity of two merely similar situations. They only should be compared, which of course leads to discover not only their similarities, but also their differences.

"This ceteris paribus limitation account for the inability of otherwise able analysts to develop meaningful scenarios for the future. It is a source of serious problems in risk management" (I.I. MITROFF and H.A. LINSTONE, 1993, p.126).

Nevertheless, the linear causality concept remains very useful to obtain functional laws and principles that can be used within limits of validity that must be established.

Models thus constructed on a linear causal basis should be considered either as approximations whose use must be qualified, or as formalisms of some specific type.

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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