Abstract
Abstraction is a mental process by which our images of reality are refined through different levels of conceptualization. As such, it plays an important role in design because it affects the images we obtain at various levels of inquiry. Furthermore, because these conceptualizations are directly used in defining problems, abstraction affects problem solving and decision making.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
J. P. van Gigch, Behav. Sci. 35, 122 (1990).
T. F. Hoad, ed., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986).
A. L. Lalande, Vocabulaire Technique et Critique de la Philosophie, 12th ed. (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1976) (in French).
W. L. Reese, Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion (Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1980).
J. M. Baldwin, ed., Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology (Peter Smith, New York, 1940).
S. K. Langer, Mind: Essay on Human Feelings (Johns Hopkins U. Press, Baltimore, MD, 1967).
A. N. Whitehead and B. Russell, Principia Mathematical 2d. ed. (Cambridge U. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1925), Vol.1.
E. K. Boulding, Manage. Sci. 2, 197 (1956); in.
E. K. Boulding, Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist (W. Buckley, ed.) (Aldine, Chicago, 1968).
J. P. van Gigch, Applied General Systems Theory (Harper and Row, New York, 1978), 2nd ed.
J. G. Miller, Beh. Sc. 20, 355 (1975). See also.
J. G. Miller, Living Systems (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978).
The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 6th ed. (Oxford U. Press, Oxford, 1976).
E. Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (Yale U. Press, New Haven, CT, 1953-1957).
C. W. Hendel, Introduction to E. Cassirer, Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Ref. 11, Vol. I, p. 50.
E. Cassirer, Substance and Function (Open Court, Chicago, 1923); rpt. Dover (1953).
E. Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Ref. 11, Vol. I, p. 101.
L. von Bertalanffy, “A Definition of the Symbol,” in Psychology and the Symbol: An Interdisciplinary Symposium (J. R. Royce, ed.) (Random House, New York, 1965), pp. 1–10; rpt. in A Systems View of Man, Ludwig von Bertalanffy (P.A. LaViolette, ed.) (Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1981), Chapter 5.
L. von Bertalanffy, Scientific Nature 82, 37 (1956); rpt. in P. A. La Violette, ed., Ref. 15, Chapter 1, pp. 4-5.
A. Newell and H. A. Simon, Comm. ACM 19, 113 (1976).
H. A. Simon, Sciences of the Artificial (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969).
L. von Bertalanffy, Bull. Menninger Clin. 22, 50 (1958); rpt. in P.A. LaViolette, ed., Ref. 15, Chapter 3.
G. Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Ballantine, New York, 1972).
C. Hampden-Turner, Maps of the Mind: Charts and Concepts of the Mind and Its Labyrinths (Macmillan, New York, 1981), p. 170.
S. K. Langer, Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling (Johns Hopkins U. Press, Baltimore, MD, 1967).
S. K. Langer, Mind, Ref. 22, pp. 153-167.
S. K. Langer, Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art (Charles Scribner and Sons, New York, 1953).
S. K. Langer, Feeling and Form, Ref. 24, p. 82.
S. K. Langer, Feeling and Form, Ref. 24, p. 379.
J. P. van Gigch, Eur. J. Oper. Res. 42, 268 (1989).
J. Wagensberg, Ideas World’s Complexity (Tusquet, Barcelona, 1985) (in Spanish).
J. Wagensberg, Ideas About World’s Complexities, Ref. 28, quoting Baudelaire’s Art Philosophique.
I. I. Mitroff, Stakeholders of the Organizational Mind (Jossey Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1983), p. 120.
I. I. Mitroff, The Subjective Side of Science: A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Psychology of the ‘Apollo Moon’ Scientists (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1974).
R. O. Mason and I.I. Mitroff, Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions (Wiley, New York, 1981).
I. I. Mitroff, R. O. Mason, and V. Barabba, The 1980 Census: Policy Making Amid Turbulence (Lexington, Lexington, MA, 1983).
P. Edwards, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, New York, 1967).
C. Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (Basic Books, New York, 1979).
C. Hampden-Turner, Maps of the Mind, Ref. 21, Maps 24, 40, and 42.
E. Cassirer, Language and Myth (Harper, New York, 1946).
G. Morgan, Admin. Sci. Q. 25, 605 (1980).
J. P. van Gigch and L. L. Pipino, Int. J. Future Computing Syst. 1, 71 (1986).
J. P. van Gigch and J. L. Le Moigne, Behav. Sci. 34, 128 (1989).
G. de Zeeuw and R. Glanville, eds., Support, Society, and Culture: Mutual Uses of Cybernetic and Science, Proceedings of Conference on Cybernetics and Science (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1989).
K. Forsythe, in Support, Society, and Culture, Ref. 41, pp. 13-18.
R. O. Mason, Manage. Sci. 15, B403 (1969).
A. Hatchuel, P. Agrell, and J. P. van Gigch, Syst. Res. 4, 5 (1987).
P. Agrell, Eur. J. Oper. Res. 14, 335 (1983).
J. P. van Gigch, Decision Making About Decision Making: Metamodels and Metasystems (Abacus, Gordon and Breach, London, 1987).
J. P. van Gigch, Rev. Int. Systémique 1, 319 (1988).
G. Lauzun, Revue Française de Gestion 24 (1980) (in French).
G. de Zeeuw, ed., Proceedings of the Conference on Problems of Disappearing Knowledge (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1985).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Gigch, J.P. (1991). Abstraction. In: System Design Modeling and Metamodeling. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0676-2_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0676-2_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0678-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0676-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive