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.

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LEAST ACTION (Principle of) 1)2)

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Motion and change are always achieved in a way such as the needed action is at the minimum.

This variation principle has its origin in celestial mechanics and mathematics. It has however been since rediscovered in quantum theory and in relativity (geodesic paths).

Least action is necessarily related to the global fields within which it takes place, themselves to be described in terms of Hamiltonian systems.

While it probably corresponds to PRIGOGINE's Theorem of minimum entropy production, the status of the principle in relation to thermodynamics of irreversible systems far-from-equilibrium, dissipative structuration and deterministic chaos does not yet seem to be clearly established.

This principle was first enounced by Pierre MOREAU de MAUPERTUIS, J. CASTI exemplifies and comments: "This action", is an abstract quantity, like energy but different, that depends on the path of the comet between a starting point and an ending point. In principle, a comet might follow any of an infinite number of different paths – it might follow a straight line, for example, or a complicated path that wriggles back and forth, Every conceivable path has a different action, and of all these, the path actually taken has the least" (J. CASTI, 1998, p.44).

One wonders if MAUPERTUIS' principle does not signal a bridge between EINSTEIN's understanding of the relation between time and space and PRIGOGINE's understanding of the relation between time, energy, entropy and emergence.

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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