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

INQUIRING SYSTEMS (Hierarchy of) 2)3)

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J.van GIGCH integrates inquiring systems into a more general process of knowledge formation: "The hierarchy of conceptual levels where higher levels of logic lend metarationality to lower levels can also be found in the process of knowledge formation… The hierarchy consists of four levels:

"Level 1 : Or user's level, provides us with facts from observations of the real world. The problem of universe of discourse of level 1 consists of making choices among those facts to prepare a descriptive model of the universe of discourse.

"Level 2: (the observer's level), the descriptive model is elaborated into an explanatory model. Here the problem consists of making choices among descriptive models to elaborate hypotheses and the most plausible explanatory model which accounts for the observed facts.

"Level 3: (the designer's level), explanatory models become prescriptive models. The designer's universe of discourse or problem is to convert explanatory models into prescriptive models or theories. The role of an explanatory model is to merely account for a system's behavior ex-post, whereas the role of a prescriptive model is to anticipate its behavior exante.

"Level 4: (the epistemologist's level), choice among prescriptive models or theories leads to the elaboration of an epistemological model, or paradigm" (1986b, p.92-3).

This is the general recipe for inquirers and designers to avoid being naïve.

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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