Publication Details

Abstract

The origin and development oi cybernetics have influenced new attempts at classifying systems. Before analysing them, the author expresses his attitude towards certain interpretations of a system. From a methodological point of view, he considers as more exact to speak about the introducing of a system on the object, about “systeming“ an object and this by defining its parts, elements and their charakteristics, i. e., properties, mutual relationships and time-spatial data, thus leaving the possibility of “systeming“ only certain properties of the object, thereby differentiating the system from the whole. He takes particular notice of the general aspects of interpreting the system in cybernetics and of classifying the so-called cybernetics system, which allows him to judge the extent to which new attempts at classification are affected by cybernetics. He analyses Bartalanffy’s interpretation of the open and closed system and the criticism of cybernetics from a position of an open system and theory and a general system theory, pointing to certain priorities in cybernetics, especially as far as space is concerned which this discipline opens for the classification of social systems. Through a brief outline of Hall’s and Fagen’ as well as Boulding’s classifications, he arrives at the basic quiestion relating to be taken towards the new system classifications in general as compared to Engel’s of the form of motion in matter. The actual situation in science speaks rather in favour of a search for new classification principles, different from those proposed by Engel, though this does not imply refusal of materialistic dialectics.