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Computer Sciences

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ontology

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Towards An Ontology Of Problems, Martin Zwick Jan 1995

Towards An Ontology Of Problems, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Systems theory offers a language in which one might formulate a metaphysics (or more specifically an ontology) of problems. This proposal is based upon a conception of systems theory shared by von Bertalanffy, Wiener, Boulding, Rapoport, Ashby, Klir, and others, and expressed succinctly by Bunge, who considered game theory, information theory, feedback control theory, and the like to be attempts to construct an "exact and scientific metaphysics." Our prevailing conceptions of "problems" are concretized yet also fragmented and in fact dissolved by the standard reductionist model of science, which cannot provide a general framework for analysis. The idea of a …


Incompleteness, Negation, Hazard: On The Precariousness Of Systems, Martin Zwick Jan 1984

Incompleteness, Negation, Hazard: On The Precariousness Of Systems, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

An account is offered of the dialectical tensions which afflict systems of widely differing type, "contradictions" which cannot be fully or permanently resolved, and from which follow the lawfulness of both hazard and opportunity.