Call for papers! WOSC & ASC Conference Moscow September 2020
In September 2020 two conferences on Systems Science and Cybernetics are taking place in Moscow. 18th WOSC Congress 16 – 18 September 2020 Systems approach and cybernetics, engaging the future of mankind – The significance Call for active participation Increasingly, people and institutions are recognizing the systemic nature of our…
New lecture series by BCSSS visiting scholar Cadell Last on ‘Systems Science and Subjectivity’
Cadell Last, a philosopher and host of the School of Thinking at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium worked with the Bertalanffy Center for an extended period of time in 2019 as one of the first early career researchers the Center intends to support with its Next Generation Program. He…
Philosopher Cadell Last researches human evolution and the role of subjective problematics in the anthropocene
Cadell Last, a philosopher and host of the School of Thinking at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium worked with the Bertalanffy Center for an extended period of time in 2019 as one of the first early career researchers the Center intends to support with its Next Generation Program. He…
“Meaning“ did not emerge like a bolt from the blue
Recent literature suggests the appearance of information that is coupled to significance not only with the advent of biotic agents (“meaning” in living systems) but already with prebiotic environments, namely, with the existence of agents (non-living, physical systems) that – according to the fourth law of thermodynamics after Stuart Kaufmann – …
Vienna 2016 | Wolfgang Hofkirchner | Convergences of General System Theory, Critical Realism and Theory of Society
The International Sociological Association held its 3rd ISA Forum of Sociology 10-14 July 2016 in Vienna. The Forum was devoted to the topic “The future We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World”. Wolfgang Hofkirchner gave a presentation at the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics (RC 51) on…
Theoria cum praxi et bonum commune (Leibniz): System theory, informatics and a wise society for all
Rathaus Tiergarten, Berlin-Moabit (photo: Wikimedia Commons) The Leibniz-Sozietät der Wissenschaften zu Berlin e.V. (LS) invites the group “Emergent Systems, Information and Society” to present itself at a one-day colloquium of their two classes (Natur- und Technikwissenschaften; Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften). The group is a joint endeavour of the Arbeitskreis of the LS, the Research…
Vienna 2014 | Workshop | The Dynamical Basis of Social Emergence
In November 2014, the Bertalanffy Center hosted as Visiting Scholar John Collier from South Africa, University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. On 25 November 2014 he held a 3 hours workshop giving an overview of the concept of emergence (scientific and philosophical), a criticism of important approaches, a list of essential properties of…
León 2014 | Workshop | Understanding Complexity
From 27 – 30 January, 2014 , a workshop for students was held under the title “Understanding complexity: systems, emergence and evolution“. It was organised and introduced by BCSSS Fellow José María Díaz Nafría. In addition, the Center was represented by Rainer Zimmermann who gave a lecture course on the foundations…