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: Etymological clarification 1)3)

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Etymology is quite an interesting platform when we explore the meaning of "information".

A. ZELEZNIKAR writes: "Form is the essential root in grasping the meaning of information…

"… the Greek "morfe" means form, shape, figure, body, grace, beauty… the latin "forma (ae,f.) is figure, form, appearance (exterior), beauty, picture, sign, plan, base, contour, manner, way, kind, quality. The latin "formatio (onis,f.)" is creation, formation, representation (mapping). The latin verb "formare" has the meanings to form, shape, picture, represent; to educate, instruct, teach; to control, settle, adjust, regulate, put in order, make do, create, produce, execute. The latin prefix "in" has spatial, temporal, and modal meanings. They are: about, after, against, as, at, behind, beyond, during, in, into, on, till, to, towards, until, up to, upon, within, etc.

"In grasping the notion of information one has to consider the Latin word "informatio", which is the composite of "in", "forma"and "tio". Here, the meanings of "in" and "forma", with all their diversities and combinations, have to be taken in account. Meanings of the Latin informatio are forming, putting into form, presentation, notion, description of notion, explanation, interpretation, etc… In scholasticism, this meaning is etymological and ontological: it represents shaping of matter by form, where shaping is thought as a process itself and as a result. It has the meaning of forming the mind as a consequence of a co-natural object of cognition. Later, DESCARTES introduced the meaning of forming the consciousness by the physical structure of brain, which is becoming evident as perception" (1988, p.187).

To inform should also mean, in some cases "put form into something". Sir d'Arcy W. THOMPSON wrote many years ago (1916) a marvelous book about "Growth and Form", in which extended studies of comparative forms in plants and animals lead the reader to the insight of the existence of what we could call "meta-forms". For us, humans, there is a rich information to be extracted of "nature's play with families of forms". But, of course, we are again lending significance and human motives to an abstract and projected entity invented by our brains: "Nature".

Even so, we are able to perceive numerous forms, to coordinate many of them in families and to extract from them a quite general information.

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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