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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EVOLUTIONISM 1)3)

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The belief in evolutive models.

The scientific theory of evolution (E. SCHWARZ, 1993, p.5),… which is quite a different matter.

SCHWARZ adds a complementary definition in order to discuss more widely the general concept: "A philosophical attitude based on evolution". He writes: "Evolutionist theories may have different connotations according to the disciplines. In natural sciences, evolutionist models (irreversible thermodynamics, nonlinear dynamics modelization of emergence and complexification in physics; Darwinism or Lamarckian transformism in biology) have positive connotations in comparison to models without a privileged time direction (classical mechanics), or fixist ones (creationism) in biology. On the contrary, in human sciences (ethnology, sociology, anthropology, etc… ) evolutionist theories appeared during the colonial period, associating the evolution idea to progress (transition from the "savagery" to the "civilized" state). As a reaction other models appeared more recently in which the time problem has been sometimes abusively eliminated" (1993, p.6)

In short the evolutionist concept covers quite different meanings- and even intentions or prejudices- and should be carefully scrutinized wherever it appears

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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