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GLOSSARY |
This is a preliminary attempt at a glossary of terms related to this site. While some of the definitions themselves are difficult to understand, I can only recommend that the reader follow up by visiting the links of this site and reading more from the bibliography. Each term is cross-referenced to their printed sources at the bottom of the page.
androcracy: Type of social organization in which one gender or class dominates another.*
attractor: Region on the domain of a dynamical system that attracts all nearby states.*
autopoiesis: Grk. 'self-making'; "network of production processes in which the function of each component is to participate in the production and transformation of other components."***
bifurcation: Significant change in the portrait of attractors and basins of a dynamical system, as its rules are changed.*
catastrophe: n. 1. A great, often sudden calamity. 4. A sudden violent change in the earth's surface; a cataclysm.**
chaos: In chaos theory, a dynamical system that is neither static nor periodic.*
chaos theory: Pop name for dynamical systems theory, a branch of mathematics.*
closed systems:
coevolution: n. The evolution of two or more interdependent species, each adapting to changes in the other.**
cognition: n. 1. The mental process or faculty of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.**
cognitive map: Mental image empowering thinking, for an individual or for a culture.*
complex dynamical system: A dynamical system consisting of a number of component dynamical systems connected in a network.*
consciousness: n. 1. The state or condition of being conscious. 2. A sense of identity, esp. the complex of attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or a group.**
continuum: n. 1. A continuous extent, succession, or whole, no part of which can be distinguished from neighboring parts except by arbitrary division.**
cosmos: The ordered universe; also, the patriarchal order of society.*
culture: Social system that is taught and learned by successive generations.*
cybernetics: n. The theoretical study of communication and control processes in biological, mechanical, and electronic systems, esp. the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems.**
deep ecology
disease: n. 1. A pathological condition in an organism resulting from infection or genetic defect, for example, and characterized by identifiable symptoms. 2. A condition or tendency, as of society, regarded as abnormal and harmful.**
dissipative structures
dynamical historiography: Theory of history in which dynamical concepts are used to conceptualize the metapatterns of history and prehistory.*
dynamical system: Mathematical model in which states of a natural system are modeled by points in a geometrical space, and movement is specified by unchanging rules that are attached to the points in the space.*
ecology: n. 1. The science of the relationships between organisms and their environments. 2. The branch of sociology that studies the relationships between human groups and their physical and social environments.**
economics: n. The social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and with the theory and management of economies or economic systems.**
ecosystems: n. An ecological community together with its environment, functioning as a unit.**
energy: n. 4. Phys. The capacity of a physical system to do work.
environment: n. 2. a. The combination of external conditions that affect organisms. b. The social and cultureal conditions affecting an individual or a community.**
equilibrium: n. A condition in which all acting influences are canceled by others, resulting in a stable, balanced, or unchanging system.**
erodynamics: New style in the social sciences, characterized by dynamical models, computer simulation, and the methods of chaos theory.*
evolution: Modern form of the myth of progress, in which things somehow keep growing and improving without death.*
feedback (loop)
flexibility
fractals
Gaia Hypothesis: Theory due to James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, in which all systems of the planet Earth are interconnected in a single intelligent system.*
general evolution theory: Variant form of general systems theory, in which evolution is seen as a universal pattern observed in all natural systems.*
general systems theory: Theory, created by von Bertalanffy, in which complex systems are viewed holistically, as amounting to more than the sum of the parts.*
Gestalt psychology
gylany: Term introduced by Riane Eisler for a partnership society, such as that of the goddess culture of the late Paleolithic.
hermeneutics: Dualistic cognitive theory, in which the observer and the observed are locked in a tight embrace of interaction; the science of interpretation.
holism/holistic:
homeostasis
Jungian psychology
living systems
mapping
matriarchy: Dominator form of society (androcracy) in which women are the dominant gender.*
matter
mechanistic conception
microorganisms
mind
mysticism
morphogenesis: The process of pattern formation.*
mythogenesis: The evolutionary process, within the cultural field or cognitive map of a society, in which myths are created, transformed, and maintained.
network
neuroscience
non-equilibrium
nonlinear equations
nonlinearity
noogenesis: Term coined by Teilhard de Chardin for the evolution of the mental field of the human species.
open systems
order: Antithesis of chaos, according to the conventional patriarchal view.*
organization
organism
Orphic revival: Sporadic emergence of Orphic cultural values from a state of repression; examples include the Florentine Renaissance, the hippies of the 1960's.*
paradigm
paradigm shift
patriarchy: Dominator form of society (androcracy) in which men are the dominant gender.*
pattern
perception
phase shift: Bifurcation; paradigm shift; catastrophic transformation.*
philosophy
physics
population
process
psychology
psychosomatic network
quantum physics
renaissance: Major social transformation.*
relationships
reductionism
self-organization
spirituality
social systems
sociogenesis: Process of creation and change of social structures.*
stability dogma: Dogmatic belief in the stability of the solar system, the biosphere, or the social system.*
static behavior: Situation of a point attractor, in which all nearby states tend to rest; compare with periodic or chaotic.*
stress
structure
sustainability
symbiosis
systems thinking
technology
thermodynamics
unconscious
value system
variables
web
worldview