Shannon, Wiener, and the Alethic Value of Information

This paper uses historical and deconstructive methods to examine contrasting visions of information’s alethic value. It focusses specifically on the research and legacies of Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener, two founding fathers of information science. Shannon’s formulation of information as a statistical function of probability emphasizes a kind of pragmatism: information that can be broken into bits and transmitted through a system possesses alethic value. Wiener’s research and career set a contrasting example to that of Shannon in relation to a construction of truth. The alethic value of information in the Wienerian tradition is derived not only from its pragmatic transference within a system, but also from the way in which it interacts with other systems through feedback loops. The dichotomy set by Shannon and Wiener implicates broader questions surrounding conceptualizations of truth in LIS research today.