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Feedback, Cybernetics and Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

André Delobelle
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Extract

Feedback appears to be a fundamental characteristic of the phenomena of life. Elsewhere it only appears in man-made machines. These machines are always presented as being a meeting ground for laws immanent both in matter and in man. A new science has been created to study the applications of feedback: cybernetics. As feedback is closely related to questions concerning the transmission of information, cybernetics has rapidly given rise to a theory of information. The latter, with its applications, has taken on an absolutely essential role in our modern world wherever problems of administration occur.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 23 , Issue 91 , January 1975, pp. 70 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

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2 See, for example, Norbert Wiener, Cybernetique et société. L'usage humain des êtres humains, Paris, Union Générale d'Editions, 1962, 252 p.; G.A.M. Vogelaar, Communicatie. Kernproces van de samenleving, Haarlem, Bohn, 1962, p. 96.

3 Norbert Wiener, Op. cit., p. 12. Our italics.

4 For the difference between "adjustment" and "adaptation" see the corre sponding articles in Julius Gould, William L. Kolb (eds), A Dictionary of the Social Sciences, New York, The Free Press, 1964, pp. 8-10.

5 Norbert Wiener, Op. cit., pp. 117-128.

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8 Colin Cherry, Op. cit., p. 57.

9 Colin Cherry, Op. cit., pp. 57-58.

10 Norbert Wiener, Op. cit., pp. 39-40. Our italics.

11 Norbert Wiener, Op. cit., p. 73. Our italics.

12 Norbert Wiener, Op. cit., p. 75. Our italics.

13 Norbert Wiener, Op. cit., p. 75.

14 We speak of "structure" to indicate the internal order of a closed ensemble, and of " system " to indicate the interactional equilibrium in which this ensemble finds itself with its environment.

15 We have based this summary of the phenomenon of feedback on the exposition made by Bok, Op. cit., and in particular on pp. 22-67.

16 The cybernetic model invented by W. Ross Ashby (in Design for a brain, New York, Wiley and Sons, 1952), called a "Homeostat," which is capable of selecting types of responses, within certain limits by trial and error, until it returns to a stable equilibrium, does not, however, invalidate this conclusion.

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52 See above.

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76 Fritz Heider, The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, New York, Wiley and Sons, 1958, X + 326 p.

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80 George H. Mead, L'esprit, le soi et la société, translation, Paris, P.U.F., 1963.

81 Melvin L. De Fleur, Theories of Mass Communication, New York, David McKay, 1966, pp. 90-96.

82 D. Anzieu, J.Y. Martin, Op. cit., pp. 134-135.

83 F.W. Banghart, A.J. Bachrach, E.G. Pattishall, Ibid.

84 See above.

85 C. Flament, Op. cit., pp. 53-145.

86 See above.

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88 T.M. Newcomb, R.H. Turner, E. Converse, Op. cit., pp. 266-270.

89 Positivism made these two terms synonymous and then wrongly abandoned the second in favor of the first.

90 Dr. G.A.M. Vogelaar, Op. cit., pp. 67-81.

91 Alfred Kuhn, The Study of Society. A Multidisciplinary Approach, London, Tavistock Publications, 1966, pp. 258-259.

92 Colin Cherry, Op. cit., p. 216.

93 On the phases of decision see Alfred Kuhn, Op. cit., pp. 251-313.

94 Colin Cherry, Op. cit., p. 212.

95 See also the special number of Communications dedicated to the "évène ment," n. 18, 1972, 200 p.

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97 Theodore M. Mills, Op. cit., p. 21.

98 Theodore M. Mills, Op. cit., p. 19, our italics.

99 Jean Piaget, "Remarques finales," in XXU, L'explication dans les sciences, Paris, Flammarion, 1973, pp. 215-232.

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105 Colin Cherry, Op. cit., pp. 212-216.

106 Prof. Dr. S.T. Bok, Op. cit., pp. 240-241.