China 
Africa 
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Introduction to Systems
Published in Devendra K. Chaturvedi, ®, 2017
Teleology is based on belief that things happen because of the purpose or design that will be fulfilled by them. The scientific revolution started in the seventeenth century due to the pioneering work of Copernicus and Kepler pertaining to solar system and that of Galileo and Newton pertaining to terrestrial and celestial dynamics is proved to be the most powerful activity man has discovered. Copernicus and Kepler’s heliocentric model of the solar system demolished the Aristotelian solar system, which consisted of crystalline sphere upon which the planets moved in perfect circles. Galileo propounded that the earth is not the center of the world but the sun is the center and immovable. His work directly challenged Aristotelian view that motion needed a force to maintain it to produce acceleration. Newton developed the concepts and definitions to be used and stated the three laws of motion governing the classical dynamics. He discovered the motion of bodies in vacuum thereby proving the basis of celestial mechanics, discussed the modifications introduced in fluids, and ultimately demonstrated “the frame of the system of the world,” applied the ideas to solar system to accurately predict the facts about the motion of planets and developed laws of gravitation. He advocated the importance of expressing nature’s behaviors in the language of mathematics. Thus, the present day science may be seen as applications of Galileo Newtonian methodology to study of natural phenomena. Newton’s physics provided a mechanical picture of the universe, which survived severe tests and Aristotle’s teleological outlook and his holistic notion, seemed an unnecessary doctrine.
Complexity of In-Vehicle Controllers and Their Effect on Task Performance
Published in International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 2019
To evaluate in-vehicle controller complexity, we should analyze the interface features in terms of system purpose. It is necessary to structure the situations faced by users due to the presence of a large number of devices and large amount of information (Rasmussen, 1985). Therefore, Rasmussen (1985) divided the functional aspects of systems according to their means and ends based on abstraction hierarchy. Lower levels of abstraction are accorded to physical aspects, and higher levels of abstraction are related to a system’s purpose. This viewpoint is similar to that of Gero (Gero, 1990; Gero & Kannengiesser, 2004), who explained the design process based on the function–behavior–structure (FBS) framework. The function is the purpose of the design, that is, its teleology. The behavior refers to attributes derivable from a structure or expected from a structure, and the structure refers to the elements of an artifact and their interrelationships. The FBS framework compares the expected behavior of a system interface and its structure; this process transforms a system structure into a description. It is confirmed that the FBS framework is useful for analyzing not only user interfaces but also the complexity structurally (Ham, Park, & Jung, 2012; Lin & Zhang, 2005).