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

MIND 3)

No definition!

The New American Heritage Dictionary – for example – gives 11 different definitions of "mind", some of them quite difficult to compatibilize with others. So, none is given here.

Systemists should make up their… mind about the concept of "mind".

J.M. DELGADO, from his neurobiologist's viewpoint, writes: "The mind is an ill defined entity which usually is described as an active process. Most definitions indicate what the mind does, but not what it is or when and how it is formed. Basic mental functions are related to the reception, interpretation, storage and retrieval of both inner and outer stimuli. Some of these functions involve the processes of feeling, thinking, remembering, willing and other phenomena.

"The brain, in contrast with the difficulties in defining the mind, is a well identified physical entity which can be seen, touched and weighted".

Of course, this is impossible to do with a working brain within a skull in a living organism.

Besides, it is probably not the point. What is important in the brain, as the "producer" of "mind" is its organization and the dynamics of the cerebral processes.

The most that can be said about the so-called mind is to describe it as an abstract designation for a set of coordinated brain activities that can be investigated as physical phenomena. S. GROSSBERG, for instance, suggests that: "Neural networks that match sensory inputs with learned expectations help explain how humans see, hear, learn and recognize information" (1995, p.438-49). The mind is thus no concrete "entity" to be sought for.

The subject has also been deeply discussed by M. BUNGE (1979, p.124-185).

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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