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

THEORY (Projective) 3)

Any theory introducing some unverifiable hypothesis – at least provisionally – in order to solve some difficulties, unsolvable within a former theory.

R. VALLÉE points out a trend in contemporary theoretical and mathematical physics to "replace visible complication by invisible simplicity" (in the words of the French physicist Jean PERRIN). This is the case when "to a complicated theory describing perceived reality within the limits of its possibilities, we substitute a simpler theory, but at the same time we introduce a universe partially unknown in its own nature or because of the limitations of our observation means" (1990b, p.41).

Three different cases seem to be possible:

1. The new theory is validated when new and adequate means of observation become available: This was the case with atomic theory in chemistry, with special relativity in physics and astrophysics and with continental drift or plate tectonics in geology.

2. The new theory is falsified in POPPER's sense by some new experiment. This was the case of the ether theory after MICHELSON and MORLEY's experiment.

3. The new theory is neither validated nor falsified, but introduces some unsolvable epistemological enigma.

VALLÉE describes this last type of theories as "projective" as: "So we go (back), through a kind of projection (which justifies the name of projective theories given to this type), from an unobservable world, where we have simple laws (we could say a logos) to an observable world with complex laws (Ibid). This concept of VALLÉE is closely linked with his "epistemological subjectivity", a unavoidable condition, according to him, of any observing, deciding and acting system.

Ontological skepticism

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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