Gasparski W
Department of Praxiology and Science, Polish Akademy of Sciences, Warsaw.
Stud Hum Ecol. 1994;11:141-8.
The paper reviews main ideas related to the concept of hierarchy as they are discussed in contemporary general systems theory. After presenting a dictionary definition of the concept, the author examines the intuitive idea of hierarchy quoting Mario Bunge's notion of level structure. Then relationship between two other concepts: a system and a hierarchy is characterised on the bases of Bowler's, Bunge's again, Klir's, and the author's studies. Finally, the paper is concluded that hierarchy is not an otological concept but epistemological one.
本文回顾了当代一般系统理论中所讨论的与层次概念相关的主要观点。在给出该概念的词典定义后，作者引用马里奥·邦奇的层次结构概念，审视了层次的直观概念。然后，基于鲍勒、同样是邦奇、克利尔以及作者本人的研究，阐述了另外两个概念——系统和层次之间的关系。最后，文章得出结论：层次不是一个本体论概念，而是一个认识论概念。
