Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:13:00.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Entropy and Information: Suggestions for Common Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Jeffrey S. Wicken
Jeffrey S. Wicken*
Affiliation:
Division of Sciences and Engineering Penn State University, Behrend College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Entropy and information are both emerging as currencies of interdisciplinary dialogue, most recently in evolutionary theory. If this dialogue is to be fruitful, there must be general agreement about the meaning of these terms. That this is not presently the case owes principally to the supposition of many information theorists that information theory has succeeded in generalizing the entropy concept. The present paper will consider the merits of the generalization thesis, and make some suggestions for restricting both entropy and information to specific arenas of discourse.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 176 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I wish to express appreciation to Dr. Kenneth Denbigh, Dr. David Hull, and an anonymous referee for their very helpful comments on two earlier versions of this paper.

References

REFERENCES

Bookstein, F. (1983), “Comment on a Nonequilibrium Approach to Evolution”, Systematic Zoology 32: 291–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billouin, L. (1962), Science and Information Theory. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, D. R. and Wiley, E. O. (1985), “Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics and Evolution—Responses to Bookstein and Wicken”, Systematic Zoology 34: 89–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brush, S. G. (1983), Statistical Physics and the Atomic Theory of Matter. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chaitin, G. (1966), “On the Length of Sequences for Computing Finite Binary Sequences”, Association for Computing Machinery: Proceedings of the National Conference 13: 547–569.Google Scholar
Chaitin, G. (1975), “Randomness and Mathematical Proof”, Scientific American 232: 47–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denbigh, K. (1982), “How Subjective is Entropy?”, Chemistry in Britain 17: 168–183.Google Scholar
Gatlin, L. (1972), Information Theory and the Living System. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Layzer, D. (1975), “The Arrow of Time”, Scientific American 233: 56–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovtrup, S. (1983), “Victims of Ambition: Comments on Wiley and Brooks' Approach to Evolution”, Systematic Zoology 32: 90–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. (1974), “Teleological and Teleonomic: A New Analysis”, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 14: 91–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morowitz, H. (1968), Energy Flow in Biology. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Prigogine, I. (1980), From Being to Becoming. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman & Co.Google Scholar
Schroedinger, E. (1944), What is Life? London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shannon, C. and Weaver, W. (1949), The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Whitehead, A. (1925), Science and the Modern World. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Wicken, J. (1979a), “Entropy and Evolution: A Philosophical Review”, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 22: 285–300.Google Scholar
Wicken, J. (1979b), “The Generation of Complexity in Evolution: A Thermodynamic and Information-Theoretical Discussion”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 77: 349–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicken, J. (1981), “Causal Explanations in Classical and Statistical Thermodynamics”, Philosophy of Science 48: 65–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicken, J. (1983), “Entropy, Information and Nonequilibrium Evolution”, Systematic Zoology 32: 438–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicken, J. (1984), “Autocatalytic Cycling and Self-Organization in the Ecology of Evolution”, Nature and System 6: 119–135.Google Scholar
Wicken, J. (1985), “Thermodynamics and the Conceptual Structure of Evolutionary Theory”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 117: 363–383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiley, E. O. and Brooks, D. R. (1982), “Victims of History—a Nonequilibrium Approach to Evolution”, Systematic Zoology 31: 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiley, E. O. and Brooks, D. R. (1983), “Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics and Evolution: A Response to Lovtrup”, Systematic Zoology 32: 209–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1973), Philosophical Investigations, 3rd edn. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Yockey, H. (1977), “A Calculation of the Probability of Spontaneous Biogenesis by Information Theory”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 67: 377–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yockey, H. (1981), “Self Organization Origin of Life Scenarios and Information Theory”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 91: 13–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed