Summary Of Behavior Purpose And Homeeology By Norbert Berker

In Norbert Wiener’s co-authored “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology,” the “behavioral” mode of science, at its core, investigates a goal or purpose driven by negative feedback, which requires, respectively, active, purposeful and feedback (teleological) behavior. Wiener begins the article by establishing that “the behavioristic approach consists in the examination of the output of the object and of the relations of this output to the input. By output is meant any change produced in the surroundings by the object. By input, conversely, is meant any event external to the object that modifies this object in any manner” (Wiener 1). Consequently, he distinguishes the behavioristic approach from the functionalist or structuralist approach, which holds

Moreover, he notes the important distinction between positive and negative feedback: positive feedback “adds to the input signals [but] does not correct them,” and negative feedback uses the signals from the goal “to restrict outputs which would otherwise go beyond the goal” (2). Whereas positive feedback behaves similar to an object or system’s performance in that its goal is just to fulfill a purpose, negative feedback actually moves beyond just attaining a goal –– rather, it seeks to maintain the goal or the “final condition” as the object or system fluctuates; negative feedback seeks to maintain an equilibrium. Consequently, Wiener deems that “all purposeful behavior may be considered to require negative feed-back. If a goal is to be attained, some signals from the goal are necessary at some point to direct the behavior” (2). While purposeful feedback behavior seeks to achieve a goal, however, Wiener acknowledges that it does sometimes have its faults, particularly in the case of “continuous feedback control,” or “undamped feed-back,” which he demonstrates through the operations of a machine and a patient with cerebellar disease (2). The machine, “designed with the purpose of impinging upon a moving luminous goal,” tracks the proverbial goal by tracing its direction and noting the brightness of the light, an indication of its proximity. Should the machine make even one miscalculation in regulating its following of the light, that error would result in a series of subsequent misjudgments and, ultimately, the machine’s inability to reach its goal. The patient with cerebellar disease experiences this disconnect in attempting motor activity, particularly in Wiener’s example of carrying a glass of water from table to mouth. He writes that “the hand carrying the glass will execute a series of oscillatory motions of increasing