Information and Reflection

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.