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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
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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

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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.

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