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

STIMULUS 1)

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1. "Any physical energy… that (a) actually (not potentially) participates in the excitation (or activation) of sensory receptors, and, (b) is independent of any activity which the subject may engage in" (S. KATZ, 1976, p.42).

2. "Anything that touches off a receptor or causes a response" (J.J. GIBSON, 1986, p.56).

St. KATZ comments: "… the term stimulus is identical to what POWERS calls a disturbance" (Ibid).

However, the perceived stimulus is not anymore only an event in the environment: it is received and treated in a definite way by an autopoietic system.

As to GIBSON, he states "And note above all that an object cannot be a stimulus, although current thinking carelessly takes for granted that it is one" (Ibid). A response is then an effect in a perceiving organism, i.e. one that is organized to perceive it. Observe also that perception is not necessarily conscious: a living organism perceives ultraviolet light, but is not conscious of it.

Any organism need a proper level of stimulation. Insufficient stimuli, as well of excess of them would send the organism out of its limits of dynamic stability and could destroy it.

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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