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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HIERARCHIC SYSTEM 1)2)

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"A system composed of subsystems that, in turn, have their own subsystems, and so on" (H. SIMON, 1958, p.64).

H. SIMON states: "By a hierarchic system, or hierarchy, I mean a system that is composed of interrelated subsystems, each of the latter being in turn hierarchic in structure until we reach some lowest level of elementary subsystems. In most systems in nature, it is somewhat arbitrary as to where we leave off, the partitioning and what subsystems we take as elementary" (Ibid).

SIMON notes how the physical concept of "elementary particle" has evolved within the two last generations. Other examples, biological or astronomical, show that an "elementary subsystem" is largely a matter of definition by the modeller.

He also stresses that the relations among subsystems are quite more complex that an univocal and common dependence from an upper level or rigid control over inferior levels.

Hierarchic systems are indeed made of co regulated subsystems and a meta-level's role is (or should be) more of regulation and cohesion than of domination.

→ HORA and TEMPUS parable

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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