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

WHOLE and PARTS relationship 1)

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W.R. ASHBY has established the following principle "That a whole dynamic system should be in equilibrium at a particular state, it is necessary and sufficient that each part should be in equilibrium at that state, in the conditions given to it by the other parts."

ASHBY comments: "Clearly, at any state of the whole, if a single part is not at equilibrium (even though the remainder are), this part will change, will provide new conditions for the other parts, will thus start them moving again, and will thus prevent that state from being one of equilibrium for the whole. As equilibrium of the whole requires that all the parts be in equilibrium, we can say (metaphorically) that every part has a power of veto over the states of equilibrium of the whole" (1960, p.79).

To take care of this aspect, R.L. ACKOFF proposes what could be called the architectural view: Essentially, no part can be changed (modified, increased, decreased, suppressed) without considering the impact of the change on the other parts and, if needed redesigning the whole (1995, p. 44).

While some changes of the parts may originate in changes of external parameters to the system, in this case this is left outside the picture.

From a new and significant viewpoint, wholes are now frequently considered holographic. This implies that the whole is somehow reflected in every part. J.C. LUGAN offers curious insights in this sense: "Individual actors constitute society, but society, through the socialization process, is in each individual. Moreover, while society is produced by the interactions among its individuals, it retroacts by producing individuals through education and language" (1993, p.112).

In other words society tends to become autopoietic, by way of the scattering of its global characteristics among numerous individuals, just as if being an enormous hologram.

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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