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

ISOMORPHISMS and HOMOMORPHISMS 1)2)3)

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Isomorphisms should be carefully distinguished from homomorphisms.

According to R. VALLÉE, the pluridisciplinary, (or better, transdisciplinary) character of systems theory "… is a result of one of its fundamental goals, i.e. to show, in the best case, structural isomorphisms between systems pertaining to different disciplines (or between representations of these systems). Such isomorphisms' which most generally, if not always, are merely homomorphisms, were already heralded by cybernetics, as in the title of WIENER's work…

"This search for isomorphisms, or more modestly, homomorphisms, leads to the concept of model, which allows for the representation of a category of systems. The ideal of an isomorphic representation is however misleading. As KORZYBSKI reminded us, "the map is not the territory" (1990, p.56).

St. BEER enounces a similar opinion: "Having refined the conceptual models, the contents of mind,… the scientist produces two deeper-level homomorphic models – and these may well be isomorphic with each other" (1968, p.113).

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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