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

IMAGE 2)3)

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A physical or mental representation of some object or system.

Physical representations are generally "iconic", made to be seen. Mental representations are proper to each individual. Image formation is, at least in man (if not altogether in superior animals), a basic condition for coordinated action.

In J.P. CHANGEUX words, images do result of the "… integrated workings of a perception mechanism of mental objects and of monitoring or their connections" (1992, p.709)

When the relationship between mental and psychic images and the relevant environment is unsatisfactory, action turns inefficient, and in some cases outright pathological, in particular when the image is confused with what we call reality (A. KORZYBSKI, 1950a). Images are a fertile ground of metaphors and analogies, sometimes unfortunately dubious or spurious.

As observed by K. BOULDING (1956), mental images have an imaginary temporal dimension, when referred to past events, even those historical ones whose images had to be learned, being built up through semantic or symbolic messages: None of us ever knew personally

Julius CAESAR, but we assembled an image of him, learned from historical records, transmitted through successive generations… and very probably quite inaccurate in some aspects.

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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