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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FREE-WILL: A tentative systemic view 1)3)

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It could be said that the systems worldview (or Weltanschauung) clarifies somewhat the conditions in which free will could be discussed.

In systemic terms, free-will seems to be a quite constrained possibility, within at least the following conditions:

- Physiological limits of various kinds, with finally the enormous, but also limited capacity of the human brain to form concepts and values leading to a considerable domain of possible behaviors

- Socio-cultural limits under the guise of submission to socially accepted values and norms whose infringements are severely punished

The possibility of sudden emergence of some innovative way of understanding, leading eventually to an innovative behavior, introduces still other question marks

On the other hand, free-will corresponds to a decision taken by a (supposedly) rational agent, at a specific present moment

This is closely connected to the concept of autonomy in VENDRYES' sense, i.e. "the capacity of a system to select and decide, within limits, its own behavior".

This is done at any moment by selecting one behavior among many possible ones, that become automatically suppressed by the very act of decision.

→ Bayesian probability; Choice; Decision making; Emergence; Nucleation

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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