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

SYSTEMS TEACHING 1)

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A number of universities have launched programs for systems teaching. Unfortunately, most of them were partial and generally dominated by some more specific systems applications as systems analysis, systems dynamics, systems engineering, or conceived merely as a kind of vague humanistic cultural complement.

In the first case they were frequently considered by specialists as useless, and even a hindrance in technical applications because of their "fuzzy" character. In the second case, they were merely viewed as an ornament without real content. In all cases, they were evaluatedas not leading to any specific professional activity (which is of course not the point, even if the "job" is the main concern of nearly all students). As a result, they were generally shunted of downright suppressed.

One of the best recent attempt to introduce a "Master of Systems science" degree has been at the operational research school of University of Valencia, Spain. (L. FERRER FIGUERAS, 1992, p.1168-74).

One wonders:

- if systems teaching should not be first based on the study of practical situations (generally messes!) in a great variety of fields;

- if it should not be introduced already at high school and introductory college level, not as a specific subject matter, but as a methodology perfusing all subject matters;

- if the same methodology should not be promoved at universities, for example in extracurricular discussions; and inter-departmental research programs on complex situations.

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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