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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LINEARIZATION 2)

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The approximate description of a nonlinear process or system through a linear model.

Such a reduction is possible and useful only when the behavior of the modelized system is, for a time, only very slightly affected by nonlinear effects and when there are good reasons to believe that this situation could not be suddenly reversed by a change in the basic conditions of existence of the system. Any appearing factor of acceleration or slowdown, possible discontinuity, or incipient chaotic behavior should be closely watched.

In particular, as expressed by R. MAY: "The elegant body of mathematical theory corresponding to linear systems (FOURIER analysis, orthogonal functions, etc.) and its successful application to numerous fundamental problems in physical sciences, tend still to dominate more or less advanced universities cursus in mathematics and physics. Mathematical intuition thus developed ill prepares the student to confront the strange behavior showed by the simplest nonlinear discrete systems, while however these nonlinear systems are surely the rule and not the exception outside the physical sciences" (1976).

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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