Philosophy of information

Philosophy of information
The philosophy of information (PI) is the area of research that studies conceptual issues arising at the intersection of computer science, information technology, and philosophy. It includes: 1. the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation and sciences 2. the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems.[1]

History
The philosophy of information (PI) has evolved from the Philosophy of artificial intelligence, logic of information, cybernetics, social theory, ethics and the study of language and information.

Logic of information
The logic of information, also known as the logical theory of information, considers the information content of logical signs and expressions along the lines initially developed by Charles Sanders Peirce.

Cybernetics
One source for the philosophy of information can be found in the technical work of Norbert Wiener, Alan Turing, William Ross Ashby, Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, and many other scientists working on computing and information theory back in the early 1950s. See the main article on Cybernetics. Some important work on information and communication was done by Gregory Bateson and his colleagues.

Study of language and information

Later contributions to the field were made by Fred Dretske, Jon Barwise, Brian Cantwell Smith, and others. The Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) was founded at Stanford University in 1983 by philosophers, computer scientists, linguists, and psychologists, under the direction of John Perry and Jon Barwise.

P.I.
More recently this field has become known as the philosophy of information. The expression was coined in the 1990s by Luciano Floridi, who has published prolifically in this area with the intention of elaborating a unified and coherent, conceptual frame for the whole subject.

Defininitions of "information"
The concept information has been defined by several theorists.

Peirce
C.S. Peirce's theory of information was embedded in his wider theory of symbolic communication he called the semeiotic, now a major part of semiotics. For Peirce, information integrates the aspects of signs and expressions separately covered by the concepts of denotation and extension, on the one hand, and by connotation and comprehension on the other.

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Shannon and Weaver

Claude E. Shannon, for his part, was very cautious: The word information has been given different meanings by various writers in the general field of information theory. It is likely that at least a number of these will prove sufficiently useful in certain applications to deserve further study and permanent recognition. It is hardly to be expected that a single concept of information would satisfactorily account for the numerous possible applications of this general field. (Shannon 1993, p. 180). Thus, following Shannon, Weaver supported a tripartite analysis of information in terms of (1) technical problems concerning the quantification of information and dealt with by Shannon's theory; (2) semantic problems relating to meaning and truth; and (3) what he called influential problems concerning the impact and effectiveness of information on human behaviour, which he thought had to play an equally important role. And these are only two early examples of the problems raised by any analysis of information. A map of the main senses in which one may speak of information is provided by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article [2]. The previous paragraphs are based on it.

Bateson
Gregory Bateson defined information as "a difference that makes a difference".[3] which is based on MacKay: information is a distinction that makes a difference.[4]

Floridi
According to Floridi, four kinds of mutually compatible phenomena are commonly referred to as "information": Information about something (e.g. a train timetable) Information as something (e.g. DNA, or fingerprints) Information for something (e.g. algorithms or instructions) Information in something (e.g. a pattern or a constraint).

The word "information" is commonly used so metaphorically or so abstractly that the meaning is unclear.

Philosophical directions
Information and society
Philosophical studies of the social and cultural aspects of electronically mediated information have been carried out by numerous philosophers and other thinkers. Albert Borgmann, Holding onto Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium (Chicago University Press, 1999) Mark Poster, The Mode of Information (Chicago Press, 1990) Luciano Floridi, Informational Nature of Reality, Key Talk selected at the E-CAP conference 2006 (Trondheim, 2006)

Philosophy of information

Notes
[1] Luciano Floridi, "What is the Philosophy of Information?" (http:/ / www. blackwellpublishing. com/ pci/ downloads/ introduction. pdf), Metaphilosophy, 2002, (33), 1/2. [2] http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ information-semantic/ [3] Extract from "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" (http:/ / plato. acadiau. ca/ courses/ educ/ reid/ papers/ PME25-WS4/ SEM. html) [4] The Philosophy of Information. Luciano Floridi. Chapter 4. Oxford University Press, USA (March 8, 2011) ASIN: 0199232385 (http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Philosophy-Information-Luciano-Floridi/ dp/ 0199232385)

Further reading
Luciano Floridi, " What is the Philosophy of Information? (http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pci/ downloads/introduction.pdf)" Metaphilosophy, 33.1/2: 123-145. Reprinted in T.W. Bynum and J.H. Moor (eds.), 2003. CyberPhilosophy: The Intersection of Philosophy and Computing. Oxford New York: Blackwell. -------- (ed.), 2004. The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information. (http://www. blackwellpublishing.com/pci/default.htm) Oxford - New York: Blackwell. Greco, G.M., Paronitti G., Turilli M., and Floridi L., 2005. How to Do Philosophy Informationally. (http://www. wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~floridi/pdf/htdpi.pdf) Lecture Notes on Artificial Intelligence 3782, pp. 623-634.

External links
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: " Philosophy of Statistical Mechanics (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ statphys-statmech/)" -- by Lawrence Sklar. IEG site (http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/research/areas/ieg/), the Oxford University research group on the philosophy of information. Philosophy of Information website. (http://orgs.unt.edu/asis/POI.htm) Luciano Floridi, " Where are we in the philosophy of information? (http://academicfeeds.friwebteknologi.org/ index.php?id=28)" University of Bergen, Norway. Podcast dated 21.06.06.

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

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