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

INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING 3)

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R. ACKOFF and J GHARAJEDAGHI (as quoted by M. DODDS & G. JAROS, 1994) "identify three levels in the hierarchy of knowledge:

"Information is descriptive: it is contained in answers to questions that begin with such words as What, Which, Who, How many, When and Where. Knowledge is instructive: it is conveyed by answers to How-To questions. Understanding is explanatory: it is transmitted by answers to Why questions…" DODDS & JAROS add "Understanding presupposes knowledge and information. Information presupposes neither knowledge nor understanding. It does presuppose a perspective and the purpose of an inquiring viewer, for it is information for someone. To the above hierarchy one could add wisdom, as the knowledge of what to do in any given context of problems".

More carefully still, what is factually possible to do should be distinguished from what is socially, and ethically suitable to do.

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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