Information and Reflection: On Some Problems of Cybernetics and How Contemporary Dialectical Materialism Copes with Them

The occasion for this work was provided by the recent Marxist-Leninist philosophic pUblications on problems involving the term 'information' and by the extensive discussions of ideas originating in cybernetics. Thus, the issues are quite recent, which explains some peculiarities of our ap­ proach. Our main effort has been toward the clarification and systematiza­ tion of questions on information, which arise in the context of cybernetics. Where basic questions are involved, one is brought back to traditional issues as is often the case when dealing with a novel subject. Stress on questions drawn from physics is due to the author's professional involve­ ment in this field. This work was written under the direction of Professor J. M. Bochenski, principally in the context of a special program at the Institute of East­ European Studies of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland); a program carried out by Professor Bochenski with the collaboration of Dr. S. Muller-Markus. Participation in the special program was made possible by a grant from the West German 'Innenministerium'. Completion of the work was subsidized by the Bundesinstitut fUr ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien in Cologne. Our thanks go to these persons and organisations, who are in no way responsible for the content of the work. Givisiez, May 1967 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE Although we have made use of the works of Cherry and MacKay, cited in the bibliography, our translation of many terms may still seem some­ what arbitrary to some readers. The explanation for this is threefold.

1. Cybernetics and Information.- 1.1. On Cybernetics.- 1.2. The General Debate about Cybernetics.- 1.3. On the Question: What is Information?.- 1.4. Two Philosophic Views on Information.- 1.4.1. The Ontic Mode of Aristotelian Forms as the Ontic Mode of Information.- 1.4.2. Information as Third Ontic Element.- 2. Marxism-Leninism and Cybernetics.- 2.1. On the Relationship between Dialectical Materialism and the Sciences.- 2.2. Rejection and Acceptance of Cybernetics.- 2.3. On the Philosophic Problems of Cybernetics.- I / Information.- 3. Preliminaries.- 3.1. On the Origin of the Word ‘Information’.- 3.2. ‘Information’ in Ordinary Language.- 3.3. Formal Analysis of Statements on ‘Information’; the Information Situation.- 3.3.1. Preliminaries on the Information Situation.- 3.3.2. Statements about the Communication Partners.- 3.3.3. Statements about the Means of Communication (Information Carrier).- 3.3.4. Some Remarks.- 4. Language and Information.- 4.1. Language.- 4.2. Sign and Sign Situation.- 4.2.1. Semiotic Disciplines.- 4.2.2. Classification of Signs.- 4.3. On the Analysis of the Sign Situation and on Terminology.- 4.3.1. Pragmatic Considerations.- 4.3.2. On the Analysis of the Designatum.- 4.3.3. Sign as Sign Function.- 4.4. Linguistic Signs.- 4.5. The Functions of Language.- 4.5.1. The Communication Situation.- 4.5.2. The Primary Communicative Functions of Language.- 4.5.3. Further Linguistic Functions.- 4.5.4. The Supra-Linguistic Character of Linguistic Functions.- 4.6. Definitions of (the Concept of) Information.- 4.6.1. Two Basic Definitions.- 4.6.2. Communication Situation and Information Situation.- 4.6.3. On Other Meanings of ‘Information’.- 4.6.4. Some Other Definitions of Information.- 4.7. Different Interpretations of the Definitional Elements.- 4.7.1. On ‘Meaning’.- 4.7.1.1. The Meaningful Parts of Language.- 4.7.1.2. Linguistic Meaning and Information.- 4.7.1.3. The Illusion of ‘Carrying’.- 4.7.2. On ‘Communicating a Report’.- 4.7.2.1. Reporting as Transmitting: Communication as Connection.- 4.8. The Physical Aspect of Language and Signs.- 4.9. Perception and Information.- 4.9.1. Information as Knowledge.- 4.9.2. Information as Correlation.- 4.9.3. Perception, Sign-Like and Pure.- 4.9.4. Semiotic Stages in Perceptual Processes.- 5. Information Theory.- 5.1. Nomenclature.- 5.2. Extended Communication Processes.- 5.3. On Statistical Information Theory.- 5.3.1. The Hartley Model for Message Source.- 5.3.2. The Bit.- 5.3.3. Shannon’s Problem.- 5.3.4. Message Production as a Stochastic Process.- 5.3.5. Entropy and Information Content.- 5.3.6. Encoding.- 5.3.7. Shannon’s Fundamental Theorem; Channel Capacity.- 5.3.8. Further Statistical Information Measures.- 5.3.8.1. Conditional Probabilities.- 5.3.8.2. Transinformation.- 5.4. On the Theory of Signal Structure.- 5.4.1. Structural, Metric and Statistical Information Content.- 5.4.2. Modulation.- 5.5. Observation Processes and Signal Reception.- 5.5.1. Disturbances in Communication Processes.- 5.6. Storage.- 5.7. Data-Processing.- 5.7.1. A Special Boolean Algebra.- 5.7.2. Interpretations as Propositional Calculus and as Switching Algebra.- 5.7.3. The Operation of Data-Processing Machines.- 5.7.4. Binary Representation.- 5.8. Control; Feedback; the Complex Dynamic System.- 6. The Interpretation of Information Measures; Isomorphy.- 6.1. Some Fundamentals.- 6.2. General Interpretations 70 6.2.1. Variety.- 6.2.2. Variability.- 6.2.3. Specificity.- 6.2.4. Complexity.- 6.3. Special Interpretations.- 6.3.1. Indeterminacy, Uncertainty and Their Resolution.- 6.3.2. Novelty Value of a Report.- 6.3.3. Information Gain.- 6.3.4. Selection.- 6.4. Order Measures for Objects and Systems.- 6.5. Correspondence and Correlation.- 6.6. Mapping, Isomorphy and Homeomorphy.- 6.7. Model.- 7. Signal Determination.- 7.1.’ signal’.- 7.2. Definition of Signal Determination.- 7.2.1. Signal Situation.- 7.2.2. Signal Structure.- 7.2.3. Structural Dependence.- 7.2.4. The Irrelevance of ‘Energy-Relations’.- 7.2.5. The Determinant Character of the Signal System; Class Formation.- 7.3. An Objection.- 7.4. Processes with Signal Determination.- 7.5. ‘Information’.- II/The Dialectical-Materialist Doctrine of Reflection.- 8. Sources and Foundations of the Doctrine of Reflection.- 8.1. The Basic Question of Philosophy.- 8.2. Matter.- 8.3. Consciousness.- 8.4. The Primacy of Matter over Consciousness.- 8.5. Lenin’s Influence on the Doctrine of Reflection.- 8.5.1. Reflection Theory.- 8.5.2. Rejection of Empirio-Symbolism.- 8.5.3. Hypothesis on the General Sensitivity of Matter.- 9. Reflection Theory.- 9.1. Ontology.- 9.1.1. The Objective Dialectic.- 9.1.2. The Philosophic Categories.- 9.2. Epistemology.- 9.3. On the Dialectical Traits of the Reflection Theory.- 9.4. The Meanings of ‘Psychic Reflection’.- 10. Reflection as General Property of all Matter.- 10.1. The Stages of Reflection.- 10.2. Properties of Reflection.- 10.2.1. External and Internal.- 10.2.2. Reaction, Adaptation and Practice; Adequacy.- 10.2.3. Passive and Active; Objective and Subjective.- 10.2.4. Abstraction and Generalization.- 10.2.5. Irreducibility of All the Various Forms of Reflection.- 10.3. Reflection and Motion.- 10.4. On the Ambiguity of ‘Reflection’; Shifting the Problem.- III/Dialectical-Materialist Contributions to the ‘Information’ the me.- 11. Survey.- 11.1. On the Notion of a Connection between Reflection and Information.- 11.2. The Nature of Information.- 11.3. The Objectivity of Information.- 11.4. The Universality of Information.- 11.5. Contentful Information Theory.- 12. Information as Connection.- 12.1. A Cybernetic Notion of Information.- 12.2. Views on the Relationship between Reflection and Information.- 12.2.1. Information as Contentful Connection.- 12.2.2. Information as an Aspect of Reflection in Control Systems.- 12.3. The Universality of Information as a Matter of Viewpoint.- 12.4. Causal Dependence and Information.- 12.5. Material and Ideal Information.- 12.5.1. The Ambiguity of ‘Meaning’.- 12.5.2. Specification of the Problem.- 12.5.3. Information as Semantic Relation.- 13. Entropy and Structural Information.- 13.1. Information and Entropy.- 13.1.1. A Principle of Negentropy of Information (a Digression).- 13.1.2. Information as Ordered Reflection; ‘Heat Death’.- 13.1.3. On the ‘Anti-Entropic Effect’ of Information Processes.- 13.2. Structure, System, Organisation.- 13.2.1. Information as a Structural Property.- 13.2.2. System and Information.- 13.3. Developmental Processes of Systems.- 13.4. The Generality of the Concept of Information; Potential and Actual Information.- 14. Elaboration of the Doctrine of Reflection.- 14.1. A Cybernetic Theory of Perception.- 14.1.1. Analysis of the Signal.- 14.1.2. The Operation of Comparing.- 14.1.3. The Image (Psychic Reflection).- 14.1.4. The Ideal as a Functional Property.- 14.2. Signal and Isomorphy.- 14.2.1. Differing Descriptions of Perception.- 14.2.2. On the Problem of Perception.- 14.3. Universal Reflection.- 14.3.1. Interaction and Reflection.- 14.3.2. Inorganic Reflection and Technology.- 15. Information in a Dialectical-Materialist Theory of Signs.- 15.1. General Remarks.- 15.2. The Meaning of Signs.- 15.3. Meaning and Information Relative to Non-Linguistic Signs.- 16. Concluding Remarks.- 16.1. General Remarks on the Interpretation of Information.- 16.2. Materialist Monism and Information.- 16.3. On the Objectivity of ‘Ideal’ Information.- 16.4. Information and the Doctrine of Reflection.- References.- Index Of Names.