Some Principles of Knowledge Organization

The substantive complexity of a complex system or issue can be diminished by the introduction of structural complexity to describe that system or issue. To minimize the negative impact of the introduction of structural complexity, graphics should be translatable into prose. To assure that this can be done it is necessary to define a metalanguage that is not only appropriate for use in modeling, but also is adequate to bridge the structural gap to applications. The availability of well-defined structural types helps minimize the impact of structural complexity. Several structural types are defined, and a principle of definition is set forth as a reasonable basis for choosing and distinguishing these types. The set inclusion relation is the most critical one in the metalanguage of structuring in problem definition, because of its key role in the definition of terms, hence of systems or issues. To assure that this relation can be constructively applied, especially with graphics representations, mappings are developed that provide a basis to convert poorly structured information into well-structured information, suitable for a translatable graphic presentation.