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

TIME PERCEPTION 3)

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This is one of the most elusive issue in general, and in systemics in particular. J.J. GIBSON writes: "We should begin thinking of events as the primary realities and of time as an abstraction from them – a concept derived mainly from regular repeating events, such as the ticking of clocks. Events are perceived, but time is not" (1986, p. 100).

L.von BERTALANFFY states that: "Experienced time is not Newtonian. Far from flying uniformerly (aequilabiliter fluit, as NEWTON has it), it depends on physiological conditions. The so-called time memory of animals and man seems to be determined by a 'physiological clock'…

"Experienced time seems to fly if it is filled with impressions, and creeps if we are in a state of tedium…

"With increasing age, time appears to run faster…

"Correspondingly, the rate of cicatrization of wounds is decreased proportional to age, the psychological as well as physiological phenomena obviously being connected with the slowing down of metabolic processes in senescence"

The subject was researched in depth by the French biologists P. LECOMTE du NOUY as early as 1936 and somewhat later by A. MISSENARD (1940) (see above).

It should be added that, just as our space perception is defined by our physiological characteristics, our perception of time is also related to it: we have no way to perceive too short changes, nor too long ones, while the perception scale of other animals (of very short life for example) could be quite different.

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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