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

METACOMMUNICATION 2)3)

← Back

A key for decoding communication.

The concept is introduced and thus explained by M. MARUYAMA: "Metacommunication is a "decoding key", but not the content of the communication. For example, if I send a message, "It is raining in New York", and send another message, "The first message is false", then the second message is a decoding key for the first message, telling you that a joking mode or a deceptive mode was used. But the second message by itself does not say anything about the weather in New York" (1994, p.69).

Metacommunication may lead to doublebind situations, as with the famous Epimenides- the-liar paradox (see "Theory of types", "Metamessage").

Metacommunication thus frames and relativizes communication. This is very significant, especially when metacommunication remains implicit, as it is the case in many transcultural situations. Transculturated individuals can become victims of their ignorance of implicit metacommunication in the other culture.

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]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint