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

ONTOLOGY (Constitutive) (H. MATURANA's) 3)

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R. HARNDEN explains constitutive ontology in this way: "Instead of making claims to go beyond or transcend understanding by pointing toward eternal, inmutable verities, a constitutive ontology rest its claims for reality with whatsoever is brought forth by the individual observer, in the course of the consensual coordinations of actions in a community of observers" (1990, p.294).

"When used as a synonym for "objectivity", ontology is ascribed a transcendental status. It suggest something over beyond what is known, something that might be referred to as Reality or as Truth. This Platonic legacy is what is denied by MATURANA's insight into a constitutive ontology. When we place objectivity in brackets, we are left with a world or better, a series of individual cognitive spaces, in dynamic relations with one another and the global environment." (Ibid, p.294).

and finally…

"No statement for or against Objectivity is being made." (Ibid.).

When one objectivizes in an absolute way, what he/she really does is create a theater of ghosts, with a dangerous potential for self-deception, illusory idealization and, easily, ideological intolerance.

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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