CONSTRAINTS: (Internal and external)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 648 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Epistemology, ontology or semantics, Methodology or model |
Any system is submitted to two different classes of constraints, i.e. internal constraints which organize its necessary heterogeneity, and external ones, which result from the more or less stable or unstable conditions in its environment.
The internal ones are defined by the central control subsystem (see stellar type system), which ensures autopoiesis on the base of the formerly registered evolutive traits corresponding to the system's class. These constraints are, for example, genetic, normative, statutory through by-laws, etc…
The external constraints are the present limitations imposed upon the system by its environment. They may well be at variance with the historical or evolutive constraints already registered within the system and thus be a source of serious problems.
I.V. BLAUBERG, V.N. SADOVSKY & E.G. YUDIN insist rightly on the importance of this feature: “Experience shows that many complex problems of today are not solved at all or are solved incorrectly or ineffectively only because they have been wrongly formulated, because not all the essential aspects of the …constraints imposed on its solution have been taken into account” (1977, p.262).
This is also a result of the “isolated” or “closed” system fallacy, leading to study the system only from inside, in a kind of aseptic vacuum.