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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MODEL: A semantic muddle 3)

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In her paper on "Models and retroductive inference", M. ESTEP explores "some of the broad categories of the concept of "model" in scientific inquiry" (1992, p.585).

She states: "Clearly, some in the systems science community would use "theory" and "model" as equivalent. Others have taken a more qualified position, that is that models are "embryonic theories" and theories are "generalized full-term models" (See next heading) (W. ACAR, 1988, p.172).

According to M. ESTEP, however, "All models and theories are "abstract" and "concrete" to some degree".

The distinction is still quite obscure: it would seem that any first level model is a homomorphic representation of some "object" (with all the ambiguities associated with this term). Further on, collections of more or less isomorphic models may appear and allow for the construction of more abstract and general models (in a gradation explained by KORZYBSKI through his structural differential). A set of abstract models, satisfactorily interconnected within a logical and more global frame, could indeed be called a theory, as defined by M. ESTEP: "A system of statements which are conjectures characterizing objects"…

In any case, theories are farther away from objects than models are, and reflects quite more our basic mental structures and mindscapes.

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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