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

ORGANIZATION (levels of) 2)4)

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According to R. ROSEN, a system is "… hierarchically organized if it satisfies the following two conditions: a) the system is engaged simultaneously in a variety of separate distinguishable activities, and b) different systems descriptions are necessary to describe these several activities. It is this second condition which characterizes biological systems, with their stratification into many levels of organization" (1972, p.59).

A good example of organization through levels is given by J.P. CHANGEUX, describing the successive levels of neural organization in the brain:

- individual connections between neurons

- elemental circuits of a reduced number of neurons in charge of specific reflexes functions (walking, swimming, bicycling, etc.)

- more complex clusters of associated neurons able to codify more abstract representations

- clusters of clusters, corresponding in the human brain to the highest mental abilities: reasoning, planning, etc. (1992, p.706).

There appears to be a progressive algorithmization process at different levels.

One may wonder if the same type of processes is not a general feature of emergent social organization. It seems to characteristize the present process of globalization of human social systems.

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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