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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TELEOLOGICAL EQUATIONS 2)

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Equations in which "changes" in the system are expressed not in terms of actual conditions, but primarily in terms of the distance between the present state of the system and its final state" (I. BLAUBERG et al., 1977, p.51).

BLAUBERG et al. explain: "In other words, the systems under study are described in such a way as to make it appear that the actual changes depend upon a final state to be attained later" (According to L.von BERTALANFFY, 1971, p.75-80; 139-141).

To establish such equations for any complex system seems to be a very tall order.

Obviously any final state is necessarily hypothetical in some sense, as well as the precise moment in which it will be reached. It can be stated only within the limits of the supposed or postulated goal of the system, when this goal can be understood from some characteristics of the system.

A global aphorism like STAFFORD BEER's "Death is equifinal", leaves us still quite far from a set of teleological equations that should predict the future transformations of a concrete living system.

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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