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 authors 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 TRANSLATORS 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.