IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 65

n 1914, Norbert Wiener wrote an article
on relativism in The Journal of Philosophy. Throughout the text, the young postdoctoral student puts forth the notion that
"no experience is self-sufficient, that no
knowledge is absolutely certain, and that no
knowledge is merely derived" [31, p.567]. All
sorts of feedback, signals, and transactions - potentially controllable elements of communication - are
at play. Relativism, Wiener posits, is "closely related"
to pragmatism and, in fact, "only objects to pragmatism in so far as it seems to claim to have said the last
word in philosophy: a relativistic pragmatism is quite
possible" [31, pp. 568, 570].
Never again would Wiener so publicly concern himself with pragmatism; however, this was far from his
last word on the philosophy of pragmatism. William
James, in 1907, led Wiener to the looking glass, where
six years later Bertrand Russell - Wiener's mentor and
Mad Hatter-prodded him down the rabbit hole and into
a lifelong adventure of the unknowable, an adventure
framed largely by John Dewey's pragmatism, a systematic exploration of "the logic and ethics of scientific
inquiry" through technology [30, p. 21], [28, p. 194], [10,
p. 24]. Dewey's critique of technology formed "the basis
and provided models" for his pragmatism and analysis
of the human experience, a worldview from which Wiener would borrow [13, p. 1].
Together, the four men - with the imagery of
Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking-Glass - were part of an ongoing
intellectual conversation that began in the early 1900s
and lasted through the 1950s. Their discourse - sometimes conducted directly, sometimes not - would
nevertheless go on to shape information and communication theory in today's networked world.
Yet, few scholars have noted the impact that pragmatism has had in Wiener's learning, philosophical
underpinning, and worldview around cybernetics, a
science of control and communication through feedback, human experience, and information [29, p. 12].
In particular, while researchers have noted Wiener's
relationship with Russell and have glanced at James'
influence, they have almost entirely neglected looking
closely at Wiener's relationship with Dewey. Wiener
would credit each of these men at times throughout his
life [31], [29], [28]; however, scholars have relegated
their relationship in passing and to the footnotes of history, despite the fact that their lives intersected over a
period of four decades [29].
In reading James' writing on pragmatism, Wiener, in
his own words, "devoured [the pages] almost as much as
literary tidbits as for their serious content" [28, p. 109].
In regard to Russell, Wiener called the notorious crank

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his "chief teacher and mentor" and someone he "owe[d]
much to his influence" [30, p. 21], [28, p. 109]. Additionally, he praised Russell for introducing him to Einstein's
relativity, which later came to bear directly on his notions
of cybernetics [29, p. 70], [8]. He also credited Russell
with encouraging him to study with Dewey. Wiener, in
recalling the dark year of 1914 - with the outbreak of
World War I and his forced return to the United States -
considered Dewey a beacon of sorts. "My term at Columbia was a makeshift at best and although I began to
develop the intellectual consequences of my own ideas,
I did not get much help from my professors. Indeed, the
only one of them who was a great name comparable to
those I had learned to appreciate at Cambridge and Göttingen was John Dewey" [28, p. 222].
When considering Wiener and cybernetics, researchers - typically from the fields of science and mathematics - have gravitated toward the interwar engineering
cultures of military gunfire control, aircraft and ship
controls, communications engineering, and early control theory for the roots of cybernetics [20]. Their lack
of attention to pragmatism - arguably a philosophical
framework and humanizing mechanism for Wiener's
cybernetics - has created a chronological gap and a
paucity of understanding around Wiener and his most
iconic work.
Through Wiener's efforts, cybernetics became a science that, in 1950, hit the mainstream through his bestselling books Cybernetics [27] and The Human Use of
Human Beings [29]. The legacy of this science is now
experiencing renewed relevance with today's emphasis on
big data, information systems, and inquiry-based learning.

Relativism, Wiener posits, is "closely
related" to pragmatism.

It is now time to ask, what role did pragmatism-and
Dewey, in particular-play in cybernetics?
The answer to the question what role did pragmatism play in cybernetics involves an investigation into
the personal history of Wiener from 1907 to 1915 and
the general history of Dewey's pragmatism through the
1950s. This effort leads to the reclaiming of cybernetic
pragmatism, which stems from-and may in fact be-
Wiener's relativistic pragmatism.
The best-known scholars of Wiener have approached
the child prodigy and cybernetician as though there
was little of note between 1907, the start of his teenage years, and 1919, when at only 24 years of age he

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