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

OCKHAMS' RAZOR 1)2)3)

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The exigency to explain any result – experimental or conceptual – using the smallest possible number of concepts. (Adapted from P. CHECKLAND, 1976, p. 28)

This method and philosophical principle is attributed to William of OCKHAM, the 14th Century's english monk philosopher.

The principle can be applied to "top down" explanations as well as to "bottom up" ones. This means that it should not be invoked to justify exclusively reductionist or systemic-holistic viewpoints. These in fact reflect an asymmetrical complementarity.

While very different, Ockham's Razor could be compared with G. CHAITIN's "algorithmic complexity", both are inquiries into the nature of simplicity in explanation.

Anyhow, some aspects of Ockhams's Razor should be scrutinized in a closer way:

- The most simple is not generally the most immediate… and the most immediate is frequently not the most simple

- In the words of A. RAPOPORT: "Seek simplicity, but distrust it"

The most simple explanation may in some cases hide some unsuspected aspects, in need of some more complex modelling or description… which could be the most Simple, but at a wider or deeper level of understanding.

We may also seek and understand simplicity either at the typically reductionist or, on the contrary, at the wholeness level.

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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