Roger Cavallo

RECONSTRUCTABILITY ANALYSIS OF MULTI-DIMENSIONAL RELATIONS: A Theoretical Basis for Computer-Aided Determination of Acceptable Systems Models †

Reconstructability analysis is viewed as a process of investigating the possibilities of reconstructing desirable properties or overall systems from the knowledge of the corresponding properties of their various subsystems. Overall systems are represented by n-dimensional relations, each of which is viewed as a finite set of aggregate states (n-tuples) formed by individual stales of n variables. Depending on the context or investigation, the relations may include various measures defined on them, such as probability distributions or fuzzy set membership functions. Each subsystem is defined as a projection of the overall relation into k or its n dimensions (k < n). Every set of subsystems or an overall system is referred to as a structure system and is viewed as a possible basis for reconstructing specified properties of the overall system This paper focuses on the problem of generating, in an orderly fashion, all meaningful structure systems of a given overall system which ore desirable in each particular...

RECONSTRUCTABILITY† ANALYSIS: Evaluation of Reconstruction Hypotheses‡

This paper is the second of three which provide a comprehensive framework and computer-implementable algorithms for the investigation of the relation between parts and wholes. Such investigation involves either the problem of determining from among all possible collections of subsystems of a given overall system those which allow the reconstruction of specific properties of the overall system under given quality criteria, or the problem of identifying specified properties of an unknown overall system from appropriate properties of a given structure system (a set of coupled systems). These two problems are called the reconslructability and identification problem, respectively, and the solution process associated with them is referred to as reconslructability analysis. Although reconstructability analysis may take a number of different forms, three sets of procedures can always be recognized in it: i) procedures through which all desirable reconstruction hypotheses (meaningful sets of subsystems) can be gen...

A conceptual foundation for systems problem solving

A conceptual framework is presented in this paper within which it is possible to integrate and operationalize results of systems research. The framework is described in terms of an interactive general systems problem solver (GSPS). The paper consists of a discussion of both the motivation for developing GSPS and its implications, and a formal description of its basic aspects. An epistemologieal hierarchy of systems, which underlies the problem solver, and a complete specification of an example of a small version of GSPS are given in two appendices.

THE STRUCTURE OF RECONSTRUCTABLE RELATIONS: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY

Abstract This paper provides a general framework within which to describe a major class of problems related to structure identification or determination. This framework is expressed in a manner which facilitates the development of working methods which operationalize the notion of structure for use in the investigation of systems.

Systems methodology in sociology

This paper considers systems methodology, using computer-oriented mathematical concepts, in terms of two empirical examples from sociology: suicide and the schooling process. We apply to the two ar...

On the solution of multiattribute problems involving counting in intersecting sets

A method is presented for computing the number of elements in any collection of sets derived from other sets by statements that are reducible to conjunctions, disjunctions, and complementations. The technique also detects certain inconsistencies that may be present in the given data. The method is applicable to a wide range of problems in computer science, actuarial studies, survey statistics, and the social and systems sciences.

A Problem-Solving Basis for General Systems Research

The recent orientation of our research—and that of the group with which we work at the School of Advanced Technology—has been directed toward a not unfounded reservation which we occasionally encounter and which is succinctly represented by Bunge’s observation that “...some scientists have misgivings because GST’s have not delivered all the goods promised by their most enthusiastic proponents.”

Science and Scientism

To develop an appreciation for the role of general systems methodology in respect to the social sciences, it is necessary to trace some aspects of their development, and also to examine the status of certain methodological questions within them. By observing a page (or several fragments of several pages) of the history of science, we find that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the forerunners of what we recognize today as the social and behavioral sciences, study areas such as psychology, economics and political science, were closely related with humanistic and metalinguistic branches of study. The natural sciences (actually, the sciences of the inert) were in the heyday of their period of accomplishment, exhibiting unparalleled capacity for ‘dominion over the earth and mastery of nature.’ A good portion of this accomplishment was undoubtedly attributable to a growing freedom from the hegemony and dogmatism of various forms of institutionalized thought. One early adherent of science, for example, Bernard de Fontenelle, in championing science’s cause, extolled its principle values — skepticism, pragmatism, and relativism (Leiss, 1972, p. 77).

General Systems Methodology as Language

One of the main points of the last chapter was the impossibility of removing all traces of a knowing subject (and the history of the subject and the state of the subject at the time of knowing). Closely related to this is the importance of themes which affect this knowing indirectly in that they pertain more properly to the cultural group and to the times in which the more localized acts of knowing take place. Recognition of this importance has come from many sources and perspectives.