Basic Definitions

Before you explore this database, it may be helpful to know several key definitions that are implicit in presentation of its contents (we include the phrase “working” below to emphasize that we reserve the right to change the definition as we work, that we recognize that some of these are unresolvable issues, and that we may improve them as time goes on):

  1. Our Working Definition of Science:
  2. Our Working Definition of Natural Sciences:
  3. Our Working Definition of Theory:
  4. Our Working Definition of Conventional Sciences:
  5. Our Working Definition of System:
  6. Our Working Definition of Systems of Systems (SoS):
  7. Our Working Definition of Isomorphy (as used here):
  8. Our Working Definition of Systems Processes Theory (SPT):
  9. Our Working Definition of Isomorphic Systems Process (ISP):
  10. Our Working Definition of Linkage Proposition (LP):
  11. Our Working Definition of Complexity:
  12. Our Working Definition of Emergence (as used here):