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

EXTERNALITIES 1)

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The set of factors that do not seem to influence significantly a system or some of its processes.

This is a very deceitful concept, specially in economics, because externalities are defined according to a set of generally uncriticized principles or rules. Moreover, as systems become wider embracing, more and more externalities should be taken in account as significantly related to them.

There is also a long-term trend aspect. Some factors, for instance the slowly accumulative ones, do not manifest their impact for decades or centuries and thus are classified as externalities… unless suddenly they introduce unexpected disturbances (or offer new opportunities).

According to K. KRIPPENDORFF: "Externalities may also be regarded as the nonanticipated side effects of calculated courses of action" (1986, p.30).

It could be better to speak of ill-calculated courses of action, generally because of a non-systemic partialized view of the situation.

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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