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.

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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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LOGICAL TYPES (THEORY of) 3)

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The theory of logical types was established by B. RUSSELL and A.N. WHITEHEAD in their "PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA".

G. BATESON synthesized it as follows: "… the theory asserts that no class can, in formal logic or mathematical discourse, be a member of itself; that a class of classes cannot be one of the classes which are its members; that a name is not the thing named…" (1973, p.250).

As expressed by G. BATESON (1979, p.229): "A series of examples is in order:

1. The name is not the thing named but is of different logical type, higher than that of the thing named.

2. The class is of a different logical type, higher than that of its members.

3. The injunction issued by, or control emanating from, the bias of the house thermostat is of higher logical type that the control issued by the thermometer. (The bias is the device on the wall that can be set to determine the temperature around which the temperature of the house will vary).

4. The word "tumbleweed" is of the same logical type as "bush" or "tree ". It is not the name of a species or genus of plants; rather, it is the name of a class of plants, whose members share a particular style of growth and dissemination.

5. Acceleration is of a higher logical type than velocity"

The theory of logical types was established in order to eliminate logical paradoxes whose best known example is the assertion by EPIMENIDES the Cretan that all Cretans are liars, a self-contradictory statement.

In R.von MISES words: "It constitutes the first step toward a general rational conceptual structure and discards old pseudo problems".

It has an obvious relation to Gödel's incompleteness theorem, and far from having only abstract bearings, it is very useful to clear logico-semantic muddles and many innocently or artfully distorted pseudo-logical arguments, for example in psychology.(1973, p.250 – 279).

It is a necessary tool for the establishment of hierarchies of isomorphisms in General Systems Research.

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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