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

RECONSTRUCTION FAMILY 2)

← Back

"A class of overall systems that are implied by the information in the given subsystem" (1986, p.268).

Klir states: "The size of the class… reflects the inadequacy of the subsystem representation of the overall system. The true overall system is always a member of the reconstruction family, but the subsystem information is not sufficient (except for special cases) to identify it uniquely. Hence, inferences one can make about the overall system from given subsystems are inherently imprecise.

"The determination of the reconstruction family is basically a matter of formulating and solving appropriate algebraic equations. These equations characterize, within the mathematical formalism employed, the rules of projecting the unknown overall system (e.g. overall state, or state probability) to the corresponding entities of the given subsystems. In addition, the equations are always constrained by the requirememnts of the mathematical apparatus employed' (p.269).

In other words, no formalism is neutral, nor is the decision to use it.

KLIR adds: "When the reconstruction family constrains only one system, the identification of the overall system is perfect. In these cases, which are rather rare, the ampliative reasoning becomes deductive reasoning. It may also happen, of course, that the reconstruction family is empty. This means that the given structure system is inconsistent" (p.269).

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]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint