Ebook: New Perspectives on Cybernetics: Self-Organization, Autonomy and Connectionism

Gertrudis Van de Vijver· Seminar of Logic and Epistemology University of Ghent Before being classified under the fashionable denominators of complexity and chaos, self-organization and autonomy were intensely inquired into in the cybernetic tradition. Despite all rejections that cybernetics has gone through in the second half of this century, today its importance is more and more recognized. Its decisive influence for connectionist theories, autopoietic and constructivist theories, for different forms of applied or experimental epistemology, is being more and more understood and generally accepted. It is mainly due to the success of connectionist models that we observe today a revival of interest for cybernetics. The 1943 article by McCulloch and Pitts is evidently a founding article. Cybernetics has however a much broader interest than the one linked to technical-mathematical details relevant to the construction of networks. For instance, the evolution from first to second order cybernetics, the ways of approaching biological and cognitive phenomena in the latter and the limits that were formulated there, are particularly meaningful to understand current developments and divergences in connectionism. A nuanced picture of cybernetic's history and its present state is therefore clearly epistemologically essential.

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-9
Introduction Different Kinds of Cybernetics....Pages 11-31
Front Matter....Pages 33-33
Ends and Meaning in Machine-Like Systems....Pages 35-48
Hierarchical Non-Equilibrium Self-Organization as the New Post-Cybernetic Perspective....Pages 49-58
A Priori and a Posteriori in Cognitive Praxis the Model for the Regulation of Agonistic Antagonistic Couples....Pages 59-76
Non-Rational Cognitive Processes as Changes of Distinctions....Pages 77-94
Front Matter....Pages 95-95
Self-Organization and Autonomy in a Post-Cybernetic Perspective Epistemological Issues....Pages 97-103
The Experimental Epistemology of Walter S. McCulloch a Minimalistic Interpretation....Pages 105-123
From Paleo- to Neo-Connectionism....Pages 125-146
Second Cybernetics: A Double Strategy for Representing Cognition....Pages 147-156
The Bringing Forth of Dialogue: Latour Versus Maturana....Pages 157-174
A One-Sided Boundary: On the Limits of Knowing Organizational Closure....Pages 175-205
Mechanistic Explanations and Structure-Determined Systems Maturana and the Human Sciences....Pages 207-217
Front Matter....Pages 219-219
Correspondence, Consensus, Coherence and the Rape of Democracy....Pages 221-232
Writers of the Lost I: Second-Order Self-Observation and Absolute Writership....Pages 233-245
Back Matter....Pages 247-262

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-9
Introduction Different Kinds of Cybernetics....Pages 11-31
Front Matter....Pages 33-33
Ends and Meaning in Machine-Like Systems....Pages 35-48
Hierarchical Non-Equilibrium Self-Organization as the New Post-Cybernetic Perspective....Pages 49-58
A Priori and a Posteriori in Cognitive Praxis the Model for the Regulation of Agonistic Antagonistic Couples....Pages 59-76
Non-Rational Cognitive Processes as Changes of Distinctions....Pages 77-94
Front Matter....Pages 95-95
Self-Organization and Autonomy in a Post-Cybernetic Perspective Epistemological Issues....Pages 97-103
The Experimental Epistemology of Walter S. McCulloch a Minimalistic Interpretation....Pages 105-123
From Paleo- to Neo-Connectionism....Pages 125-146
Second Cybernetics: A Double Strategy for Representing Cognition....Pages 147-156
The Bringing Forth of Dialogue: Latour Versus Maturana....Pages 157-174
A One-Sided Boundary: On the Limits of Knowing Organizational Closure....Pages 175-205
Mechanistic Explanations and Structure-Determined Systems Maturana and the Human Sciences....Pages 207-217
Front Matter....Pages 219-219
Correspondence, Consensus, Coherence and the Rape of Democracy....Pages 221-232
Writers of the Lost I: Second-Order Self-Observation and Absolute Writership....Pages 233-245
Back Matter....Pages 247-262
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