Marcin J. Schroeder

Tohoku University | Tohokudai · Institute for Excellence in Higher Education Global Learning Center

In 2018, we initiated a series of three Special Issues dedicated to contemporary natural philosophy in the spirit of the goals of the journal Philosophies (See Appendix A and Appendix B) [...]

This editorial complements the editorial opening Philosophies eight years ago. The success of the original vision of the journal has been confirmed by the high quality of published works and its institutional recognition. The journal Philosophies evolves, but this evolution is an adaptation to the conditions of better realization of its original mi...

Information integration has been considered the key characteristic of the mechanism of consciousness. However, the mechanism of integration remains unknown. Integration can be considered in terms of the factorization of mathematical structures. This paper presented information integration as a mode of encoding information. The level of integration...

The paper is intended as an exploration of the potential methodology for hypercomputing using the long intellectual experience of the study of morphology and morphogenesis. The first part of the paper shows that the missing element of the process of computation in the studies searching for the generalization of computation is encoding. Turing Machi...

Continuing the tradition of S4SI Summits, the 2021 Summit had the form of ten federated conferences focusing on more specific aspects of the study of information. Its title, “Information Study for the Benefit of Humanity: Learning from the Past and Building the New Normal,” referred to the present great challenge faced by the global community—the p...

The theme of the conference, “Morphological Computing of Cognition and Intelligence” (MORCOM 2021), focused on the unconventional forms of computing, which bring the promise of more efficient intelligent and cognitive computing. The present editorial, written by the organizers of the conference, reports the ideas and goals of MORCOM 2021 and provid...

Despite the continuous emphasis on globalization, we witness increasing divisions and divisiveness in all domains of human activities. One of the reasons, if not the main one, is the intellectual fragmentation of humanity, compared in the title to the failed attempt at building the Biblical Tower of Babel. The attempts to reintegrate worldview, fra...

The concept of symmetry has become the main tool for structural analysis in mathematics and science. There were many attempts to provide a quantitative methodology for research on infor- mation (e.g., Shannon’s entropy) but the structural aspects of information were always investigated within the limits of specific applications without any common s...

Peer-review has become increasingly important to the way scholarly journals assess whether a manuscript is suitable for publication [...]

This is a short presentation by the Guest Editors of the series of Special Issues of the journal Philosophies under the common title “Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies” in which we present Part 2. The series will continue, and the call for contributions to the next Special Issue will appear shortly.

Contemporary Natural Philosophy is understood here as a project of the pursuit of the integrated description of reality distinguished by the precisely formulated criteria of objectivity, and by the assumption that the statements of this description can be assessed only as true or false according to clearly specified verification procedures establis...

Whichever definition of autonomy is used, it is usually formulated in a negative way by the absence, rather than presence, of the defining factors. Some definitions refer to the absence of external causes, physical determination, coercion or control. If positive factors are used, autonomy is associated with the shift from effective causes to final...

Whichever definition of autonomy is used, it is usually formulated in a negative way by the absence, rather than presence, of the defining factors. Some definitions refer to the absence of external causes, physical determination, coercion or control. If positive factors are used, autonomy is associated with the shift from effective causes to final...

The leading theme of the 2019 Summit of the International Society for the Study of Information, held 2–6 June 2019 at the University of California at Berkeley, was the question “Where is the I in AI, and the meaning of Information?” [...]

The leading theme of the 2019 Summit of the International Society for the Study of Information, held 2–6 June 2019 at the University of California at Berkeley, was the question “Where is the I in AI, and the meaning of Information?” [...]

The meaning of information can be understood as a relationship between information systems. This study presents a brief outline of theoretical tools for the analysis of this relationship. Considering the informational character of reality, it is natural to extend the relationships between signs to include the concept of meaning as another instance...

The meaning of information can be understood as a relationship between information systems. This study presents a brief outline of theoretical tools for the analysis of this relationship. Considering the informational character of reality, it is natural to extend the relationships between signs to include the concept of meaning as another instance...

The present paper is intended as a defense of the view that whatever makes AI so useful and successful in competition with humans, it does not have to be intelligence, at least as we use this term in the human context. After all, the question of qualification for human beings to be considered intelligent does not have a definite answer. There is no...

The leading theme of the 2019 Summit of International Society for the Study of Information held 2–6 June 2019 at The University of California at Berkeley was the question “Where is the I in AI and the meaning of Information?” The question addresses one of the central issues not only for scientific research and philosophical reflection, but also for...

The leading theme of the 2019 Summit of International Society for the Study of Information held 2–6 June 2019 at The University of California at Berkeley was the question “Where is the I in AI and the meaning of Information?” The question addresses one of the central issues not only for scientific research and philosophical reflection, but also for...

The present paper is intended as a defense of the view that whatever makes AI so useful and successful in competition with humans, it does not have to be intelligence, at least as we use this term in the human context. After all, the question of qualification for human beings to be considered intelligent does not have a definite answer. There is no...

Analogy belongs to the class of concepts notorious for a variety of definitions generating continuing disputes about their preferred understanding. Analogy is typically defined by or at least associated with similarity, but as long as similarity remains undefined this association does not eliminate ambiguity. In this paper, analogy is considered sy...

In this Editorial note, Guest Editors introduce the theme of the Special Issue of the journal Philosophies, titled Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies.

The author wishes to add the following correction to his paper published in Philosophies [1]:The repeated fragment from lines 13–18 and part of 19 on page 69 should be deleted [...]

Contemporary scientific approaches to Biology are the result of some cultural ideas considered as universal by Western reductionist traditions. The study of the cultural, symbolic and historical approaches to reality and Life provides us important lessons about the necessity of integrating Eastern holistic views into the study of Life. This is both...

Information Science evolved in the last few decades from peripheral studies of other disciplines which used the concept of information with a more or less common-sense meaning, to a fully-fledged discipline with a growing toolkit of concepts and methods of inquiry. This does not mean that the concept of information acquired a unique definition acro...

Attempts to answer questions regarding the ontological status of information are frequently based on the assumption that information should be placed within an already existing framework of concepts of established ontological statuses related to science, in particular to physics. However, many concepts of physics have undetermined or questionable o...

Our new journal Philosophies is devoted to the search for a synthesis of philosophical and scientific inquiry. It promotes philosophical work derived from the experience of diverse scientific disciplines. [...]

The ability of an agent (natural or artificial) to overcome limitations caused by complexity can be identified with intelligence. Yet, the study of complexity is dominated by the issues not really associated with authentic intelligence. In search of the methods to overcome limitations of complexity it is necessary to find a sufficiently general con...

Phenomenology was born with the mission to give foundations for science of experience and to open consciousness to scientific study. The influence of phenomenology initiated in the works of Husserl and continued in a wide range of works of others was immense, but mainly within the confines of philosophy and the humanities. The actual attempts to de...

The attempts to develop naturalized, autonomous, human-independent intelligent systems are obstructed by the lack of recognition of human involvement and of its role in the present paradigm of computation. Turing machines, as well as their physical world implementations require involvement of human generation of meaning. Intelligence, natural or ar...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that sufficiently general concept of information encompassing multi-disciplinary scientific conceptualizations of this term can be useful for a discussion of the long standing philosophical problems. Design/methodology/approach – The author is using his concepts of information and its integrati...

Issue of the observer dependence of computation entered the main stage of philosophical discussion about a quarter century ago as an argument for John R. Searle's negative answer to the question "Is the brain a digital computer?" Today, this question awakens equally strong controversies in parallel with another question "What is computation?" Searl...

Recognition of the need for theoretical biology more than half century ago did not bring substantial progress in this direction. Recently, the need for new methods in science, including physics became clear. The breakthrough should be sought in answering the question "What is life?", which can help to explain the mechanisms of consciousness and con...

Information can be defined in terms of the categorical opposition of one and many, leading to two manifestations of information, selective and structural. These manifestations of information are dual in the sense that one always is associated with the other. The dualism can be used to model and explain dynamics of information processes. Application...

The paper answers question "What is computation?" presenting it as a special case of a more general natural process involving dynamics of interacting information systems. For this purpose, a more detailed description of the generalization of Turing machine called symmetric machine outlined in author's earlier paper is used as a model for natural co...

This is the final outcome of the INBIOSA project which ends by the end of December 2011. A slighly different version including some appendices will be delivered to the EC later. We believe that this White Paper is a defining document that can be used to direct future research in Integral Biomathics. It can be the base for cooperation projects in th...

The study of information based on the approach of Shannon was detached from problems of meaning. Also, it did not allow analysis of the structural characteristics of information, nor describe the way structures carry information. An outline of a different theory of information, including its semantics, was earlier proposed by the author. This theor...

The division into holistic and reductionistic methods of thinking and inquiry was present in all epochs and in all domains of intellectual activity, with the former usually having an aura of mystery. The paper is providing a short exposition of the presence of, and need for the holistic methods. An approach to information integration is presented w...

The INBIOSA project brings together a group of experts across many disciplines who believe that science requires a revolutionary transformative step in order to address many of the vexing challenges presented by the world. It is INBIOSA’s purpose to enable the focused collaboration of an interdisciplinary community of original thinkers.

On Classification of Closure Spaces: Search for the Methods and Criteria Marcin J. Schroeder Akita International University, Akita, Japan Abstract. This paper has as its main objective a critical review of typical classifications based on the disciplines of application (e.g. topology, algebra, geometry) and their particular needs. Special attention...

The article is focused on the special role of the concept of information understood in terms of the one-many categorical opposition in building a bridge between mind and brain. This particular choice of the definition of information allows unification of the main two manifestations of information implicitly present in literature, the selective and...

The paper considers necessary conditions for establishing information science as a scientific autonomous disci- pline. The lack of a commonly accepted definition of information is not as threatening as it may seem, as each study within the discipline may choose an own definition, as well as an own philosophical framework, when there are some altern...

The paper considers necessary conditions for establishing information science as a scientific autonomous disci- pline. The lack of a commonly accepted definition of information is not as threatening as it may seem, as each study within the discipline may choose an own definition, as well as an own philosophical framework, when there are some altern...

The primary objective of the paper is to demonstrate how the phenomenal unity of consciousness, when interpreted as a result of integrative functions of the brain can be modeled in terms of algebraic properties of the quantum-mechanical formalism detached from its physical interpretation. The model proposed here is going one step beyond extracting...

Abstract: Entropy has been the main tool in the analysis of the concept of information since information theory was conceived in the work of Shannon more than fifty years ago. There were some attempts to find more general measure of information, but their outcomes were more of formal, theoretical interest, and neither has provided better insight in...

An operator on a set S, i.e. an extensive and monotone (but not necessarily idempotent) function on the power set of S, generalizes the familiar notion of closure operator (transitive operator). This is one of several equivalent ways to define a dependence system. In this paper a brief review of dependence system theory precedes a more detailed dis...

A dependence system on a set S is defined by an operator f, a function on the power set of S which is extensive (A is included in f(A)) and monotone (if A is included in B, then f(A) is included in f(B)). In this paper the structure of the set F(S) of all dependence systems on a given set S is studied. The partially ordered set of operators (f<g if...

The most fundamental question in the philosophy of information "What is information?" has not received yet a definite answer free from commonly recognized deficiencies. In my earlier work I have proposed a definition of information as an identification of the variety. The definition is based on the concept of the one-many relation, a philosophical...

The Liberal Arts curriculum, understood here as a programmatic standard for the first parts of a university education, rather than a more general philosophy of the entire scope of education, is usually structured through the distinction of different "forms of knowledge," or different "ways of knowing." In this article, the concept of information, i...