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

ORGANIZATION of a SYSTEM 1)2)

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According to G. KLIR: "If the system is to exhibit a particular behavior, it must possess… certain properties which we call the organization of the system. Since, according to the definition given, the behavior of the system can change (from the viewpoint of local relations), we must assume that its organization can also change. It will be of advantage to define the constant and the variable part in the organization of the system" (1965, p.31).

This a quite classical structural and functional view of organization in systems. It should be compared with the ulterior autopoietic understanding of organizational closure, according to which organization is a cyclical (M. EIGEN would say hypercyclical) property of the system as a whole.

A closely related view is also offered by the autopoiesis concept. In M. ZELENY's words: "A network of interactions between the components, renewing the system as a distinct unity, constitutes the organization of the system. The actual spatial arrangement of components and their relations, integrating the system temporarily in a given physical milieu, constitutes its structure" (1984, p.13).

There are however some dubious cases, as for example petrified wood, which is not anymore wood, but has for eons conserved through chemical transformations the organization (or structure?) of the original system.

As to the constant and the variable parts in the organization, it is, at least for practical purposes, a matter of the time scale of observation.

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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