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

OUTBREEDING 1)3)4)

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In a strongly worded critique of social sciences methodology, M. MARUYAMA signals one of the most unsatisfactory characteristics of much contemporary specialized disciplines, which is "inbreeding", i.e. the wide ignorance of anything that lies (or seems to lie) outside of the rigidly established limits of their discipline. This leads unavoidly to "tunnel vision "and conceptual isolation (1998, p. 91-108)

Obviously he proposes "outbreeding" i.e. the crossing of disciplinarian boundaries, as a convenient cure.

MARUYAMA himself "outbred" not only scientifically, but also culturally, during many years, having lived in various European and American countries and, of course, Japan.

Outbreeding of any type triggers a process of questionning one own's concepts and frames of references, which are in many cases unable to contain different ways of understanding… and even of perception.

If one freely accepts outbreeding, one's original mental and psychical frames come under stress, sometimes even severe. However, at the same time, adaptiveness increases and wider and richer frames of references can be constructed.

It is surely not coincidental that many-maybe most- of the outstanding founding fathers of cybernetics and systems thinking have been expatriates.

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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