ELEMENT
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1047 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
The minimal components of a system such as their total set and the global set of their interrelations form the system.
According to I.V. BLAUBERG, V.N. SADOVSKY and E.G. YUDIN :“Since the element appears as a kind of limit for a possible decomposition of the object, its own structure (or composition) is usually disregarded in the characterization of the system…” and, “… in general an element cannot be described outside its functional characteristics: from the point of view of the system's wholeness it is not the substratum of the element which is of primary importance, but what it does within a whole, what functions it performs in it” (1977, p.139).
As the concept of element is also used to denote a mathematical basic part of a set, it becomes a link toward formalized models of concrete systems. However, such models should better include the specific interactions between the elements, and still better, the rules defining these interactions.