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Some Problems with the Concept of ‘Feedback’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

William C. Wimsatt
William C. Wimsatt*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

The concept of ‘feedback’, originally a technical term of cybernetics, has been so widely applied that it has become part of our everyday vocabulary. Though both scientists and philosophers have considered in detail a number of conceptual issues suggested by the perspectives of cybernetics, this basic concept has not yet received the critical attention it deserves.

Thus, while Taylor [1-3] Scheffler [4-5], and others have criticized Rosenblueth, Wiener, and Bigelow [6-8] for trying to define ‘teleological’ behavior in terms of negative feedback, their objections are directed primarily against the use of ‘naive’ or ‘black box’ behavioristic assumptions and the choice of the term ‘teleological’ to describe the phenomena in question. The concept of feedback is largely accepted by both factions on more or less intuitive grounds.

Type
Contributed Papers
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1970 , 1970 , pp. 241 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1970

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