CATEGORY
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 368 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
A defined class in a system of classification of objects, processes or relations.
J.A. GOGUEN and F. J. VARELA write: “The intuitive idea of a category is that it embodies some structure by exhibiting the class of all objects having that structure, together with all the structure preserving mappings or morphisms among them” (1979).
R. ROSEN introduced a systemic concept of “category”, also different from the one traditional in philosophy, and more formal:
- “… a category consists of the following data:
1. A collection of objects, which we shall design by A, A',…
2. A function assigning to each pair (A,A') of objects in the category, a set denoted by H(A,A'), the elements of which are called mappings or transformations. This set may be empty for some pairs (A,A').
If f H(A,A'), then we shall call the object A the domain of f; the object A' will be called the range of f.“ (1960, p.46)
ROSEN also introduced the concept of sub-category, within a previously defined category and stated “… the objects and mappings of a sub-category themselves comprise a category” (p.47).
The preceeding notions give the bases for a formally organized taxonomy of systems and subsystems, and has been introduced by ROSEN for the “Representation of biological systems”.