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

PROSPECTIVE 1)4)

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The French name for scientific forecasting.

Prospective has been introduced in France by G. BERGER (1964) and considerably developed by the "FUTURIBLES" group under the leadership of B.de JOUVENEL. Its conceptual foundations have been researched by Ch. FRANÇOIS (1976).

Its spirit is quite different from American futurology, albeit closer to English futurics as reflected in the journal "FUTURES". It is more concerned by the validity limits of any proposed forecasts.

It has also a higher level of insight in relation to complexity in nonlinear systems, avoids linear extrapolations and remains generally wary about any extrapolation. It is thus more concerned by systemics than futurology is. This stand has been considerably reinforced in the recent years with the development of deterministic chaos, which infuses a salutary skepticism about so many pseudo scientific "scenarios".

Prospectivists are also generally aware of the traps of the voluntarist illusions of some managers who lack clear ideas about the interactions of the system they govern with its complex environment and remain prone to ill-advised, short term and superficial tinkering.

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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