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.

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MODELS (Functions and uses of) 1)2)

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B. WALLISER (1977, p.179-80) distinguishes the four following functions and uses of systems models:

- cognitive: The model is used to understand the interrelations between the system's input and output variables;

- decisional: The model is used to investigate how the output variables should be defined, taking in account the probable evolution of the environmental variables;

- normative: The model is used to define and state the required relations between input and output variables of the system;

- predictive: The model is used to forecast the evolution of the system's input and output variables in relation to the probable evolution of the environmental variables and to the defined command variables.

These statements seem somewhat restrictive. Models can also be used to describe and investigate other characteristics of the systems, as for instance limits of dynamic stability, growth regimes and their limits, internal constraints and adaptations, etc… provided for the use in the process of model construction of more recent systemic concepts, as chaos, catastrophes, fractals, etc…

Such research could be beneficial for the different uses described by WALLISER.

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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