An Asymmetric Relationship: The Spirit of Kenneth Craik and the Work of Warren McCulloch

作者：Collins Alan F^*

来源：Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2012, 37(3): 254-268.

DOI：10.1179/0308018812Z.00000000020

• Kenneth Craik
• cybernetics
• models
• Warren McCulloch

Warren McCulloch held Kenneth Craik%26apos;s work in high regard. What was the source of this high regard and did this good opinion mean that Craik%26apos;s work had any effect on McCulloch%26apos;s own work? Aspects of Craik and McCulloch%26apos;s backgrounds are examined to help explain McCulloch%26apos;s views: the important place of philosophy in their education and some shared philosophical positions, their attraction to work in diverse disciplines, a respect for the science of physiology, an acceptance that mind was a legitimate object of enquiry, the demands and opportunities of military and wartime research, and a shared sense of creating a new approach to inquiries into human abilities. Two aspects of Craik%26apos;s theory about the nature of thought were also key: his claim that modelling was central to thought and the fact that those views complemented McCulloch%26apos;s own. Finally, McCulloch helped to contribute to Craik%26apos;s reputation and in doing so helped to create a founding father for cybernetics to be set alongside the likes of Ashby, Wiener and McCulloch himself.

• 出版日期2012-9