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

HABIT EXTINCTION 4)

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The spontaneous or willful elimination of a habit.

A habit may spontaneously disappear if it is not more or less frequently reinforced. However, it seems that basic habits acquired early in life never disappear definitively, even if the organism is unaware of their survival.

The willful elimination of a habit requires a considerable effort of conscious deconditioning, and retraining if it is to be replaced by another habit. Such a process is generally impossible at the physiological level.

At the psychological and mental level, it is still quite difficult and can be painful as stated by G. BATESON: "… Any freedom from the bondage of habit must also denote a profound redefinition of the self" (1973, p.275).

The different degree of resistance of habits to change seems to be related to the relative paleontological antiquity of the different brain structures, as they were formed.

The study of habit formation and extinction in learning automata will probably teach us much about habits in living systems.

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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