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

EVENT AND ELEMENT 1)3)

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E. MORIN writes: "a) The notion of element relates to a spatial ontology. The notion of event relates to a temporal ontology. Now, any element may be considered as an event if viewed within temporal irreversibility, as a manifestation or actualization, or in function of its ingularity. Time impose an "eventiality" coefficient to anything ".

b) In other words, ambivalence reigns always between event and element "while there is no "pure" element (i.e. any element is time-binded), there is also no "pure" event (it always relates to a system) and the notion of event is relative".

c) Still in other words, "… the accidental, aleatory, unlikely, singular, concrete, historical nature of any event depends from the system under which it is viewed. A same phenomenon is event within some system and element within another. Example: traffic deaths during week-ends are predictable and probable elements within a demographic-statistical system, which obeys strict laws. But each one of these deaths is, for the members of the family, an unexpected accident, a misfortune, a concrete catastrophe" (1972, p. 17).

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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