Materialism, Idealism, And Cybernetics
Laurence A. Rickels
University of Minnesota Press eBooks January 25, 2010 DOI: 10.5749/9780816673643-025 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Hegel distinguishes two dualisms—one of conscious contents and one of reflective processes—whose interaction produces insurmountable difficulties for thought, and that cybernetics, by analogically transferring consciousness processes to machines, treats reflection as an actual process, thereby engaging seriously with Hegel's philosophy. |
Abstract
This chapter explores cybernetics in relation to materialism and idealism. It begins by discussing Gotthard Günther’s The Consciousness of Machines, in which he describes a genealogy of mankind’s new self-relationship via technology. All the dualisms in a row, as old as the great civilizations, were deepened and heightened in scientific thought from the Greeks through Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In Hegel we run up against a decisive complication with the terrible twos. There are, it turns out, two dualisms, one involving the contents of conscious thought, the other concerning the processes of reflection that manipulate those contents. Their interaction or collaboration burdens thought with difficulties that cannot be overcome. By systematically attempting to transfer processes of consciousness in analogical form to machines, cybernetics takes seriously Hegel’s idea that reflection is an actual or real process.