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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HETEROSTASIS II 1)2)5)

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The "maximal condition " that may be reached by a system (After A. Harry KLOPF, using the neuron as an example – 1972, p.5).

The author understands by "maximal condition" (of a neuron) the difference between "the amount of depolarization (pleasure) minus the amount of hyperpolarization (pain)". He explains: "The solution to the mind-body problem is an identity theory. A neuron undergoing depolarization is elementary pleasure; a neuron undergoing hyperpolarization is elementary pain. The subjective event of the experience of pleasure or pain is identical to the objective event of neurons undergoing depolarization or hyperpolarization, respectively" (p.6).

These thesis, quite behavioristic and reductionist and, besides, semantically expressed in a way contrary to the non-identity principle, should be closely scrutinized.

KLOPF generalizes his concept of heterostasis to the set of all living and meta-living systems and concludes his study with the following synthesis: "The evolutionary process has established an equivalence between that which has survival value and that which is a source of pleasure. Thus, living systems, in pursuing heterostasis, participate in three broad categories of actions:

1. self-preserving behavior (maintenance of homeostasis);

2. species-preserving behavior (reproduction);

3. stimulation-preserving behavior (knowledge acquisition and play).

Recognition that these categories represent subgoals, pursued only as means to an end (Heterostasis), renders certain aspects of human behavior more understandable" (p.64).

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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