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

OPTIMIZATION THEORY 2)

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"A mathematical technique for determining the most profitable or least disadvantageous choice out of a set of alternatives" (K. KRIPPENDORFF, 1986, p.55)

This author states: "Typically the set of alternatives is restricted by several constraints on the values of a number of variables and an objective function locates the optimum in the remaining set" (Ibid).

This is a technique used in Operations research and Systems Analysis. It should be observed:

1) That the definition of the constraints is outside the scope of the technique, as they are either discovered or prescribed by the decision maker (soundly or not). Constraints discovery is a typical systemic topic.

2) That optimization of a process or a function is different from the global optimization of a system, as for example an enterprise, and that trade offs are inevitable between optima defined for various functions or processes. Maximization of one of these frequently means sub-optimization of another or various other ones.

3) The technique in itself is "blind" to these global aspects of optimization. It is a good servant, but a suspicious master.

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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