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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NUCLEATION PRINCIPLE 2)4)

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"Any structure has a minimum size, which is its "nucleus" (K. BOULDING,. 1956, p.70)… and "which results of a "mysterious initial act of nucleation" (p.71).

BOULDING states that the term comes originally from physics, but has a quite wider sense. He writes: "Once a nucleus has been formed, it is not too difficult to understand how additions to the structure are made. The formation of the nucleus itself, however, presents many problems which are Quite different from those involved in the growth of an already established structure".

He gives the example of the crystal, whose minimal nucleus is, by necessity, an ordering of atoms which, as individuals are not crystals and cannot be a nucleus. He adds: "In the case of the cell the problem of nucleation is almost completely unsolved" (Ibid).

On this matter, some important progress has been made since 1956. See: "Autogenetic system precursor"; "Morphogenesis".

BOULDING also points out that the same phenomenon appears under the guise of social innovators "those mysterious individuals who establish religions, cultures, nations, techniques and ideas" (Ibid).

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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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