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.

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SYSTEM (Source) 2)3)

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"A set of variables… established as a result of our interaction with an object of interest" (G. KLIR, 1993, p.41).

This definition corresponds to reconstructability analysis.

Source systems can be viewed "as sources of empirical data regarding specific attributes of the investigated object" (KLIR, 1991, p.221).

KLIR writes: "The most primitive epistemological category consist solely of a experimental frame, a set of variables, their state sets with appropriate observation channels, time (as a parameter within which the variables are observed), and an appropriately defined time set. The term source systems is usually used for systems defined at this level to indicate that such systems are, at least potentially, sources of empirical data. Systems on different higher epistemological levels are distinguished from each other by the level of knowledge regarding the variables of the associated source system" (1988, p.151).

KLIR makes also an important observation: "Since we deal with systems distinguished on objects and not with the objects themselves (in their totality), it is not operationally meaningful to view complexity as an intrinsic property of objects. While complexities of objects may exist in the ontological sense, they are epistemologically and methodologically vacuous, in contrast to complexities of systems" (1993, p.41).

This remembers us of "the map, which is not the territory".

→ "ontological skepticism".

A zoologist, for instance, would observe different characteristics and variables in order to study a variety, a species or a family of animals.

The source system concept seems quite close to J.G. MILLER's "concrete system". It surges from something "out there" that we observe in a defined way for some defined purpose.

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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