This electronic edition for the Web was produced by the Principia Cybernetica Project for research purposes (see http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/POSBOOK.html). The web edition is also available as separate chapters in HTML. The hard copy book was scanned and converted to HTML by An Vranckx and Francis Heylighen, and from there to PDF by Allison DiazForte. The pagination and layout are not identical to the original. The following information pertains to the original 1977 book edition:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Science\u2014Philosophy. 2 Evolution 3. Cosmol-
ogy. 4. Cybernetics. I. Title.
Copyright (c) 1977 by Columbia University Press
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
n THE BASIC LAW OF EVOLUTION........................................................................................ 15 n THE CHEMICAL ERA.............................................................................................................. 15 nCYBERNETICS.......................................................................................................................... 17 n DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS SYSTEMS.......................................................................... 18 n THE RELIABILITY OF DISCRETE SYSTEMS...................................................................... 19 nINFORMATION......................................................................................................................... 21 n THE NEURON........................................................................................................................... 23 n THE NERVE NET...................................................................................................................... 25 n THE SIMPLE REFLEX (IRRITABILITY)................................................................................ 26 nTHE COMPLEX REFLEX......................................................................................................... 28
n THE CONCEPT OF THE CONCEPT........................................................................................ 30 n DISCRIMINATORS AND CLASSIFIERS................................................................................ 32 n HIERARCHIES OF CONCEPTS............................................................................................... 33 n HOW THE HIERARCHY EMERGES....................................................................................... 35 n SOME COMMENTS ON REAL HIERARCHIES.................................................................... 37 nTHE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF A FROG............................................................... 38 nFRAGMENTS OF A SYSTEM OF CONCEPTS...................................................................... 40 n THE GOAL AND REGULATION............................................................................................. 43 n HOW REGULATION EMERGES............................................................................................. 44 nREPRESENTATIONS................................................................................................................ 47 n M E M O RY................................................................................................................................... 4 8 nTHE HIERARCHY OF GOALS AND PLANS......................................................................... 48 nSTRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAMS................................................................ 50 nTHE TRANSITION TO PHENOMENOLOGICAL DESCRIPTIONS..................................... 52 n DEFINITION OF THE COMPLEX REFLEX........................................................................... 54
nTHE METASYSTEM TRANSITION........................................................................................ 55 nCONTROL OF THE REFLEX................................................................................................... 57 n THE REFLEX AS A FUNCTIONAL CONCEPT..................................................................... 58
