Anthony George Wilden (14 December 1935 – 29 December 2019) was a writer,

social theorist Social theories are analytical frameworks, or paradigms, that are used to study and interpret social phenomena.Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons. A tool used by social scientists, social theories relat ...

, college lecturer, and consultant. Wilden published numerous books and articles which intersect a number of fields, including

systems theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...

film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for u ...

structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader s ...

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson ma ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial p ...

anthropological theory ''Anthropological Theory'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of Anthropology. The journal's editors are Julia Eckert (University of Bern), Nina Glick Schiller (University of Manchester, Max Planck In ...

, water control projects, urban

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

s, resource conservation, and communications and social relations."Biography - Wilden, Anthony (1935-)", ''Contemporary Authors (Biography)'', Thomson Gale, 2002. Wilden is credited with one of the first significant introductions to the work of

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and ...

in the English-speaking world, particularly in his role as one of Lacan's early English translators. Today Wilden's work (and consequent reputation) is arguably more influential in the fields of communication theory,

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

and social interaction. These fields of study evolved out of a long scholarly tradition of "interactional

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

" that originated with Plato's Cratylus. Along with such figures as

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include ''Steps to ...

(i.e., ''

Steps to an Ecology of Mind ''Steps to an Ecology of Mind'' is a collection of Gregory Bateson's short works over his long and varied career. Subject matter includes essays on anthropology, cybernetics, psychiatry, and epistemology. It was originally published by Chandle ...

''), R. D. Laing (i.e., ''Sanity, Madness and the Family''), and

Walker Percy Walker Percy, OSB (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, '' The Moviegoer'', won the Nat ...

(i.e., '' Lost in the Cosmos''), Wilden is considered one of this tradition's contemporary (modern and postmodern) pioneers. With the appearance of ''System and Structure'' (1972), Wilden sought "to establish the necessity of an ecosystemic or ecological approach to communication and exchange in open systems of all types", to use his own words. In hindsight it is recognized that ''System and Structure'' was an early contribution to a "theory of self-referential systems". According to

Niklas Luhmann Niklas Luhmann (; ; December 8, 1927 – November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory. Biography Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Free State of Prussia, where his father's ...

, this "theory of self-referential systems" is the second

paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. Etymology ''Paradigm'' comes f ...

change in a " General System Theory" (the first change being the " open-systems" or "systems/environment" shift, a step that initially separated "systems theory" from the traditional "whole-parts" paradigm). Through his teaching and writings, Wilden provided "a contribution to our 'knowledge about knowledge' at an abstract level, as well as supplying ammunition in the struggle with the concrete reality that information is power and that scientific discourse is a hidden weapon in the arsenal of social control." Wilden is also recognized today for his significant contributions to Context theory and Second-order cybernetics. Wilden was a professor in the Communications Department at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. He attended the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

, Victoria, British Columbia, 1960–1961, 1963–1965; and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

, earning an MA in 1967 and PhD in 1968. His doctoral thesis was entitled ''Psychoanalysis and the Language of the Self''. He died at the age of 84 in

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrar ...

, British Columbia.

Selected writings and publications

Note: the primary source for this section is from the Wilden article in Gale's Biography series. *(With

) ''The Language of the Self'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968, revised edition, 1976; reprinted as ''Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis'', 1981. *''System and Structure: Essays in Communication and Exchange'', 1st and 2nd ed., Tavistock Publications, 1972 and 1980, French translation, Boreal Express, Montreal, 1983. *(Contributor) D. E. Washburn and D. R. Smith, editors, ''Coping with Increasing Complexity'', Gordon & Breach, 1974. *(Contributor) K. Riegel, editor, ''Structure and Transformation'', Wiley, 1975. *(Contributor with Tim Wilson) Carlos Sluzki and Donald Ransom, editors, ''Double Bind: The Foundation of the Communicational Approach to the Family'', Grune & Stratton, 1976. * "Le Canada imaginaire" French translation of "The imaginary Canadian" by Yvan Simonis; foreword by sociologigist Marcel Rioux., Presses Coméditex, Québec, QC, 1979. * "The imaginary Canadian", Pulp Press, Vancouver, BC,1980. *(Contributor) M. Maruyama and A. Harkins, editors, ''Cultures of the Future'', Mouton, 1980. *(Contributor)

Kathleen Woodward Kathleen Woodward is an American academic. She is a Lockwood Professor in Humanities and in English at the University of Washington and has been the Director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities since 2000. Her areas of specialization includ ...

, editor, ''The Myths of Information: Technology and Post-Industrial Culture'', Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980. *(With R. Hammer) '' Busby Berkeley and the Mechanical Bride: From "Flying Down to Rio" to "The Lullaby of Broadway" 1933-35'' (videotape montage), Simon Fraser University, 1984. *(Contributor) Paul Bouissac, Michael Herzfeld, and Roland Posner, editors, ''Iconicity: Festschrift for Thomas A. Sebeok'', Stauffenberg Verlag, 1986. *''The Rules Are No Game: The Strategy of Communication'', Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.Review in French
("Études Internationales"). *''Man and Woman, War and Peace: The Strategist's Companion'', Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986. *(Contributor) K. Krippendorff, editor, ''Communication and Control in Society'', Gordon & Breach, 1979.

References

External links

;Excerpts from ''System and Structure''
The Symbolic, the Imaginary and the Real: Lacan, Lévi-Strauss and FreudThe Ideology of Opposition and Identity: Critique of Lacan's Theory of the Mirror-stage in Childhood
;Excerpts from ''Man and Women, War and Peace''
The Strategic Envelope
available in

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

format ;Other responses to Wilden
Gregory Bateson-Ecology of Ideas-Anthony WildenA Structure/System relationship in examining components of Digital Literacy, Pt. 1
an
Pt. 2
The author of this essay describes it as a "discussion of some axioms of structure and system as proposed by Anthony Wilden, relating to Digital Literacy assessment, and ISD (Instructional Systems Development)." {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilden, Anthony 1935 births 2019 deaths Poststructuralists British semioticians Structuralists Postmodern theory Systems theory Johns Hopkins University alumni Simon Fraser University faculty Philosophers of mind Psychological anthropologists Systems psychologists British systems scientists Communication theorists British consciousness researchers and theorists Epistemologists Translators of Jacques Lacan

Selected writings and publications

References

Further reading

External links