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

SUBSUMPTION 1)3)4)

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The ordening of a set of concepts in a hierarchical unity.

J. WARFIELD states: "Subsumption is relevant not only to the organization of knowledge in ways that facilitates its interpretation and utility, but also to components of organizations" (1990, p.290).

And: "Subsumption replaces "interdisciplinary", "aggregative", or "integrative", in situations involving the bringing together of all available relevant knowledge to construct a new organic conceptual whole" (pers. communication, 1991).

"(Subsumption) places no artificial limits on the sources of the concepts to be aggregated and thus admits actors to the discussion who are not obsessed with "disciplines". At the same time it allows for the possibility that an area of interest which has achieved subsumption of relevant knowledge to a high degree of quality may still be called a "discipline" in the academic sense" (1990b, p.290).

Remains to hope and see if obstinate "disciplinarians" will be heedful!

Subsumption must "increase the scope of the model without removing its previous content. Movement such as this is an antidote to the disease called "hardening of the categories ", which is often found as a glue that holds inadequate frames in place" (WARFIELD, 1989, p.16).

And: "A subsumptive transformation implies bringing together diverse views and ideas and transforming those by aggregating them and integrating them into a new and more encompassing perspective" (1990a, p.69-70).

→ Supersumption

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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