PERCEPTUAL CONTROL
THEORY | PCT | SCIENCE | BEHAVIOR | PSYCHOLOGY | CYBERNETICS
Perceptual Control Theory - PCT
The Collected Works of William T. Powers
|
FIRST TIME IN PAPERBACK! |
Behavior: The Control of Perception [2nd
Edition, Revised and Expanded]
introduces William T. Powers’ revolutionary
theory of the behavior of living organisms (now known as Perceptual Control
Theory), a robust system of ideas that has stood up to more than 30 years
of rigorous testing and modeling by the scientific and academic communities.
Includes glossary, bibliography, index, table of figures, both historic
and contemporary commentary, and the previously omitted chapter on Emotion.
First published in 1973 by Aldine deGruyter, B:CP has become
integral to Life Sciences curricula all over the world. In 1973, Thomas
Kuhn, legendary philosopher/educator and author of The Structure
of Scientific Revolutions, wrote this about B:CP: “[This manuscript] is among the most exciting I have read in some time. The problems are of vast importance, and not only to psychologists; the achieved synthesis is thoroughly original and the presentation is often convincing and almost invariably suggestive. I shall be watching with interest what happens in the directions in which Powers points.”See End Papers in B:CP 2nd for a sampler of contemporaneous work in PCT that would have delighted Professor Kuhn. 332 pages, illustrated, paperback,
$34.95 + s/h ISBN #9647121-7-2. |
|
Making
Sense of Behavior: The Meaning of Control William T. Powers
180 pages, paperback. $19.95 + s/h ISBN #9647121-5-6 |
|
|
Living
Control Systems Selected Papers of William T. Powers "Some of the best science is done by people who refuse to take the obvious for granted. Copernicus didn't take the sun's daily trek across the sky for granted, and Einstein didn't take the regular tick of time for granted, and William T. Powers didn't take the appearance of behavior for granted." –From the Foreword
by Richard S. Marken |
|
|
Living
Control Systems II "Control theory explains how organisms control what happens to them. This means all organisms from the amoeba to Humankind. It explains why one organism can't control another without physical violence....It explains why it is so hard for groups of people to work together even on something they all agree is important. It explains what a goal is, how goals relate to behavior, how behavior affects perceptions, how perceptions define the reality in which we live and move and have our being. Control theory is the first scientific theory that can handle all these phenomena within a single testable concept of how living systems work." –W.T.
Powers, November, 1991. |
