French Theory and Cybernetics

This essay aims to reassess the historical significance of structuralism and contextualize its relevance within the emergence of French theory during the 1960s. The genesis of this French theory cannot solely be attributed to the continuum of French philosophical history; rather, it stems from an external catalyst that illuminated a latent theoretical blind spot. I posit that these external influences emanate from the realms of cybernetics and information theory. From this perspective, the essay explores Lévi-Strauss’s engagement with cybernetics theory and its intersection with his structuralist framework. His theory of structure emerges from a discerning analysis of Shannon’s and Weaver’s communication theory, which accentuates the significance of redundancy—a fact that information theory tends to disregard as inconsequential. Upon this presupposition, the essay reconceptualizes the interrelation between structuralism and poststructuralism or postmodernism through the discussion of cybernetics and information theory.