Article

Prolegomenon to a Logic for the Information Society

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Abstract

The rapid development of information and communication technologies and their applications has stimulated many definitions of an Information Society (IS), and the related concept of a Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE) from the technological, political and economic standpoints. The ethics proposed for the emerging IS has concentrated on reducing inequalities in access to technological developments.In a key Report, “ICTs and Society”, Hofkirchner et al. (2007) insist that a new evolutionary, descriptive and normative theory “for, about and by means of” the IS is necessary to support emergence of a moral, ecologically and globally sustainable information society - GSIS.This paper proposes a new kind of logic, a non-propositional, dialectic “Logic in Reality” (LIR), applicable to real systems and phenomena, as the “missing ingredient” required for such a theory. LIR provides new interpretations of morality, self-organization, communication and conflict, grounding them in physical reality and an appropriate information theory.As a “logic of transdisciplinarity” in the Paris school acceptation, also directed toward the unity of knowledge, LIR confirms that the techno-social field of study of ICTs and Society is a transdiscipline, with direct implications for sustainable development. LIR moves debate beyond the limits imposed by naïve pragmatism and conservative ideologies and can be an essential component of a critical theory.

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... A first step toward developing a logic applicable to information has been made by Floridi (2006); his Information Logic (IL), or Logic of Being Informed, recognizes something static and abstract about standard formulations of doxastic logics that depend on the (tripartite) notion of knowledge as justified true belief. Logic in Reality ascribes a logical, non-metaphorical content to descriptions of an antagonistic interaction between the individual and the world, as an on-going process (Brenner, 2009). It is an informational process in which both actors change as the reactions of one or the other, alternately, predominate. ...
... LIR thus provides a logical foundation for discussion of ethical questions based on kinds of information that complements IL. Both are reconsiderations of logic that, as Marijuan suggests (2009), may be necessary for the advancement of information technology in an ethical direction (Brenner, 2009). ...
Article
The recent history of information theory and science shows a trend in emphasis from quantitative measures to qualitative characterizations. In parallel, aspects of information are being developed, for example by Pedro Marijuan, Wolfgang Hofkirchner and others that are extending the notion of qualitative, non-computational information in the biological and cognitive domain to include meaning and function. However, there is as yet no consensus on whether a single acceptable definition or theory of the concept of information is possible, leading to many attempts to view it as a complex, a notion with varied meanings or a group of different entities. In my opinion, the difficulties in developing a Unified Theory of Information (UTI) that would include its qualitative and quantita-tive aspects and their relation to meaning are a consequence of implicit or explicit reliance on the principles of standard, truth-functional bivalent or multivalent logics. In reality, information processes, like those of time, change and human con-sciousness, are contradictory: they are regular and irregular; consistent and inconsistent; continuous and discontinuous. Since the indicated logics cannot accept real contradictions, they have been incapable of describing the multiple but interre-lated characteristics of information. The framework for the discussion of information in this paper will be the new extension of logic to real complex processes that I have made, Logic in Reality (LIR), which is grounded in the dualities and self-dualities of quantum physics and cos-mology. LIR provides, among other things, new interpretations of the most fundamental metaphysical questions present in discussions of information at physical, biological and cognitive levels of reality including, especially, those of time, continuity vs. discontinuity, and change, both physical and epistemological. I show that LIR can constitute a novel and general ap-proach to the non-binary properties of information, including meaning and value. These properties subsume the notion of semantic information as well-formed, meaningful and truthful data as proposed most recently by Luciano Floridi. LIR sup-ports the concept of ‘biotic’ information of Stuart Kauffmann, Robert Logan and their colleagues and that of meaningful information developed by Christophe Menant. Logic in Reality does not pretend to the level of rigor of an experimental or mathematical theory. It is proposed as a meth-odology to assist in achieving a minimum scientific legitimacy for a qualitative theory of information. My hope is that by seeing information, meaning and knowledge as dynamic processes, evolving according to logical rules in my extended sense of logic, some of the on-going issues on the nature and function of information may be clarified.
... A first step toward developing a logic applicable to information has been made by Floridi (2006); his Information Logic (IL), or Logic of Being Informed, recognizes something static and abstract about standard formulations of doxastic logics that depend on the (tripartite) notion of knowledge as justified true belief. Logic in Reality ascribes a logical, non-metaphorical content to descriptions of an antagonistic interaction between the individual and the world, as an on-going process (Brenner, 2009). It is an informational process in which both actors change as the reactions of one or the other, alternately, predominate. ...
... LIR thus provides a logical foundation for discussion of ethical questions based on kinds of information that complements IL. Both are reconsiderations of logic that, as Marijuan suggests (2009), may be necessary for the advancement of information technology in an ethical direction (Brenner, 2009). ...
Article
Full-text available
The recent history of information theory and science shows a trend in emphasis from quantitative measures to qualitative characterizations. In parallel, aspects of information are being developed, for example by Pedro Marijuan, Wolf-gang Hofkirchner and others that are extending the notion of qualitative, non-computational information in the biological and cognitive domain to include meaning and function. However, there is as yet no consensus on whether a single acceptable definition or theory of the concept of information is possible, leading to many attempts to view it as a complex, a notion with varied meanings or a group of different entities. In my opinion, the difficulties in developing a Unified Theory of Information (UTI) that would include its qualitative and quantita-tive aspects and their relation to meaning are a consequence of implicit or explicit reliance on the principles of standard, truth-functional bivalent or multivalent logics. In reality, information processes, like those of time, change and human con-sciousness, are contradictory: they are regular and irregular; consistent and inconsistent; continuous and discontinuous. Since the indicated logics cannot accept real contradictions, they have been incapable of describing the multiple but interre-lated characteristics of information. The framework for the discussion of information in this paper will be the new extension of logic to real complex processes that I have made, Logic in Reality (LIR), which is grounded in the dualities and self-dualities of quantum physics and cos-mology. LIR provides, among other things, new interpretations of the most fundamental metaphysical questions present in discussions of information at physical, biological and cognitive levels of reality including, especially, those of time, continuity vs. discontinuity, and change, both physical and epistemological. I show that LIR can constitute a novel and general ap-proach to the non-binary properties of information, including meaning and value. These properties subsume the notion of semantic information as well-formed, meaningful and truthful data as proposed most recently by Luciano Floridi. LIR sup-ports the concept of 'biotic' information of Stuart Kauffmann, Robert Logan and their colleagues and that of meaningful information developed by Christophe Menant. Logic in Reality does not pretend to the level of rigor of an experimental or mathematical theory. It is proposed as a meth-odology to assist in achieving a minimum scientific legitimacy for a qualitative theory of information. My hope is that by seeing information, meaning and knowledge as dynamic processes, evolving according to logical rules in my extended sense of logic, some of the on-going issues on the nature and function of information may be clarified. Despite the widely varying content of theories of information, their emphasis has been on the quantitative aspects of information and their mathematical, abstract and essentially passive charac-ter, although information frequently involves human agents as active senders and receivers (Van Benthem & Van Rooy, 2003).This paper, however, focuses on the qualitative, causal properties of information. The framework for discussion will be my new extension of logic to real complex proc-esses, Logic in Reality (LIR) (Brenner, 2008). In my view, information is a phenomenon which, like human consciousness and change, instantiates real contradictions. LIR, in contrast to standard logics, is capable of describing such contradictions in physical, biological and cognitive processes, permitting stable inferences about them. The next Section 1 indicates some current approaches to the definition of information and of a unified theory of information. I proceed in Section 2 with an overview of LIR as a complete but non-standard logic, including its categorial ontology. In Section 3, I will propose an LIR philosophy of information, without pretending that it is a complete or unified theory. In Sections 4-7, different con-cepts of information are analyzed from the LIR perspective.
... The proposal of Logic in Reality outlined above and in [80] is that what emerges from the still unknown ground of the universe, position and energy, or statics and dynamics, can be rigorously described in dialectical terms as two different, opposing but non-separable aspects of that ground, a position similar to that taken by Diaz Nafria and Zimmermann [81]. Digital bits, now part of knowledge are an emergent epistemological phenomenon-the 'Bit-from-It' position, and the overall situation can be described by an 'onto-epistemology', whose components are 'ontolons' and 'epistemons'. ...
Article
Full-text available
Three disciplines address the codified forms and rules of human thought and reasoning: logic, available since antiquity; dialectics as a process of logical reasoning; and semiotics which focuses on the epistemological properties of the extant domain. However, both the paradigmatic-historical model of knowledge and the logical-semiotic model of thought tend to incorrectly emphasize the separation and differences between the respective domains vs. their overlap and interactions. We propose a sublation of linguistic logics of objects and static forms by a dynamic logic of real physical-mental processes designated as the Logic in Reality (LIR). In our generalized logical theory, dialectics and semiotics are recovered from reductionist interpretations and reunited in a new synthetic paradigm centered on meaning and its communication. Our theory constitutes a meta-thesis composed of elements from science, logic and philosophy. We apply the theory to gain new insights into the structure and role of semiosis, information and communication and propose the concept of ‘ontolon’ to define the element of reasoning as a real dynamic process. It is part of a project within natural philosophy, which will address broader aspects of the dynamics of the growth of civilizations and their potential implications for the information society.
... LIR provides a logical foundation for discussion of ethical questions based on kinds of information that complements IL. Both are reconsiderations of logic that, as Marijuan suggests [3], may be necessary for the advancement of information technology in an ethical direction [17]. Logic in Reality ascribes a logical, non-metaphorical content to descriptions of an antagonistic interaction between the individual and the world, as an on-going process. ...
... As I have discussed elsewhere [29], the Logic of Transdisciplinary, as expressed in Logic in Reality, supports this transdisciplinary view in general. LIR supports further integrative ITC assessment and design approaches that incorporate a normative view of technology and society. ...
... In a 2009 paper [11], I described further the essential components of my "logic of and in reality" (LIR), and showed that it had the capability of addressing and illuminating issues raised by Hofkirchner, Fuchs et al. in their evolutionary "Salzburg Approach". LIR founds a logical approach to the evolution of both groups and individuals and their interaction, and to the negative as well as the positive aspects of current technological developments. ...
... Details of the axioms, non-standard semantics and ontology of LIR are provided in my book and in other recent publications (Brenner, 2009) and will not be reproduced here. Basically, LIR should be seen as a process logic, a process-ontological view of reality (Seibt, 2009), applying to trends and tendencies, rather than to " objects" or the steps in a state-transition picture of change (Brenner, 2008). ...
Article
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The conjunction of the disciplines of computing and philosophy implies that discussion of computational models and approaches should include explicit statements of their underlying worldview, given the fact that reality includes both computational and non-computational domains. As outlined at ECAP08, both domains of reality can be characterized by the different logics applicable to them. A new "Logic in Reality" (LIR) was proposed as best describing the dynamics of real, non-computable processes. The LIR process view of the real macroscopic world is compared here with recent computational and information-theoretic models. Proposals that the universe can be described as a mathematical structure equivalent to a computer or by simple cellular automata are deflated. A new interpretation of quantum superposition as supporting a concept of paraconsistent parallelism in quantum computing and an appropriate ontological commitment for computational modeling are discussed.
... In a 2009 paper [34], I described further the essential components of my "logic of and in reality" (LIR), and showed that it had the capability of addressing and illuminating issues raised by Hofkirchner, Fuchs et al. in their evolutionary "Salzburg Approach". LIR founds a logical approach to the evolution of both groups and individuals and their interaction, and to the negative as well as the positive aspects of current technological developments. ...
Article
Full-text available
The 2nd International Conference on the Philosophy of Information (ICPI 2015) took place in Vienna June 5-6, 2015 as a major Section of the Vienna 2015 Summit Conference on the Response and Responsibility of the Information Sciences. At the ICPI, Wu Kun and others presented evidence for a current integration and convergence of the philosophy and science of information, under the influence of the unique characteristics of information itself. As I have shown, my extension of logic to real systems (Logic in Reality; LIR) applies to and explicates many of the properties of information processes. In this paper, I apply LIR as a framework for understanding the operation of information in three areas of science and philosophy that were discussed at the Summit. The utility of this approach in support of an information commons is suggested the abstract section.
... As indicated in Section 2.1.3, LIR basically defines information as a process as the reality in a physical space of a dialectical relation between sender and receiver, in which meaning and value emerge due to the constraints on the evolving interactions [Bre09]. The conception of information-as-process is central to both the BTPI and LIR views. ...
Article
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To better understand what information is and to explain information-related issues has become an essential philosophical task. General concepts from science, ethics and sociology are insufficient. As noted by Floridi, a new philosophy, a Philosophy of Information (PI), is needed. In the 80's, Wu Kun proposed a "The Basic Theory of the Philosophy of Information", which became available in English only in 2010. Wu and Joseph Brenner then found that the latter's non-standard "Logic in Reality" provided critical logical support for Wu's theory. In Part I of our paper, we outline the two basic theories as a metaphilosophy and metalogic for information. We offer our two theories as a further contribution to an informational paradigm. In Part II [WuB14], we develop the relation between information and social value as a basis for the ethical development of the emerging Information Society.
... The biologist E. O. Wilson has developed a model of social evolution [Bre09], based on insect, animal and human data that accounts in its current form for most of the dynamics of individual and group selection. Most importantly for this study, it describes the origin and relative evolutionary success of altruism or groups in which altruistic individual predominate. ...
Article
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In Part I of our joint paper [WuB13], we outlined our respective theories, The Basic Theory of the Philosophy of Information (BTPI) and Logic in Reality (LIR) and showed their synergy for the understanding of complex informational processes. In this part, we develop Wu's fundamental philosophical insight of the origin of the values of information in the interactions of complex information processing. A key concept in our work is that of a logical isomorphism between human individual and social value and the natural laws of the physical world. On the basis of Wu's concept of Informational Thinking, we propose an Informational Stance, a philosophical stance that is most appropriate for, and not separated nor isolated from, the emerging unified theory of information. We propose our metaphilosophy and metalogic of information as further support for the ethical development of the Information Society.
... Unfortunately, Luhmann's interpretation of systems theory and his application of it to sociology, from the LIR perspective, has some serious weaknesses [29]. Luhmann's functionalist conception of society as communication described social systems as consisting of communications and their attributions as actions. ...
Article
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Rafael Capurro has defined Angeletics (or messaging theory-John Holgate's preferred term) as the study of messages and messaging and proposed its paradigmatic role in 21st century science and society. As stated in Messages and Messengers. Angeletics as an Approach to the Phenomenology of Communication, edited by Capurro and Holgate, the objective of Angeletics is to further both a philosophical and a hermeneutical understanding of this phenomenon. My paper is directed at key issues outlined in the reference document by several authors that involve the physical grounding and evolution of messaging and information processes. My approach is to apply my recent extension of logic to complex real systems, processes and concepts, including information, messages and their interaction (Logic in Reality, LIR). LIR supports the grounding of Angeletics in reality and emphasizes the congruence between informational issues in science and in philosophy, as in Capurro's distinction between an "angeletic philosophy" and "philosophic Angeletics". From this perspective, LIR can act as a framework for the debate about the nature and function of messaging and information theory and their relevance for a more ethical information society.
... A striking resemblance between this approach (of constructondestructon of informaton) can be found in (Brenner, 2009): ...
Book
The volume is based on the papers that were presented at the international conference Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology (MBR09_BRAZIL), held at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil, December 2009. The presentations given at the conference explored how scientific cognition, but several other kinds as well, use models, abduction, and explanatory reasoning to produce important or creative changes in theories and concepts. Some speakers addressed the problem of model-based reasoning in technology, and stressed the issue of science and technological innovation. The various contributions of the book are written by interdisciplinary researchers who are active in the area of creative reasoning in logic, science, and technology: the most recent results and achievements about the topics above are illustrated in detail in the papers. The book is divided in three parts, which cover the following main areas: part I, abduction, problem solving, and practical reasoning; part II: formal and computational aspects of model based reasoning; part III, models, mental models, representations.
Chapter
Standard bivalent propositional and predicate logics are described as the theory of correct reasoning. However, the concept of model-based reasoning (MBR) developed by Magnani and Nersessian rejects the limitations of implicit or explicit dependence on abstract propositional, truth-functional logics or their modal variants. In support of this advance toward a coherent framework for reasoning, my paper suggests that complex reasoning processes, especially MBR, involve a novel logic of and in reality. At MBR04, I described a new kind of logical system, grounded in quantum mechanics (now designated as logic in reality; LIR), which postulates a foundational dynamic dualism inherent in energy and accordingly in causal relations throughout nature, including cognitive and social levels of reality. This logic of real phenomena provides a framework for analysis of physical interactions as well as theories, including the relations that constitute MBR, in which both models and reasoning are complex, partly non-linguistic processes. Here, I further delineate the logical aspects of MBR as a real process and the relation between it and its target domains. LIR describes 1) the relation between model theory - models and modeling - and scientific reasoning and theory; and 2) the dynamic, interactive aspects of reasoning, not captured in standard logics. MBR and its critical relations, e.g., between internal and external cognitive phenomena, are thus not “extra-logical” in the LIR interpretation. Several concepts of representations from an LIR standpoint are discussed and the position taken that the concept may be otiose for understanding of mental processes, including MBR. In LIR, one moves essentially from abduction as used by Magnani to explain processes such as scientific conceptual change to a form of inference implied by physical reality and applicable to it. Issues in reasoning involving computational and sociological models are discussed that illustrate the utility of the LIR logical approach.
Article
The work of Luciano Floridi lies at the interface of philosophy, information science and technology, and ethics, an intersection whose existence and significance he was one of the first to establish. His closely related concepts of a philosophy of information (PI), informational structural realism, information logic (IL), and information ethics (IE) provide a new ontological perspective from which moral concerns can be addressed, especially but not limited to those arising in connection with the new information and communication technologies. In this paper, I relate Floridi's approach to another novel perspective, namely, that of an extension of logic to complex real processes, including those of information production and transfer. This non-propositional, non-truth-functional logic (logic in reality (LIR)) is grounded in the fundamental dualism (dynamic opposition) inherent in energy and accordingly present at all levels of reality. The LIR description of the dynamics of processes and their evolution is relevant to what Floridi refers to as the possible non-linguistic aspects of information. It suggests answers to some of Floridi's “outstanding problems” in PI related to the ontological status of information and how it is used in cognition. Floridi's IL retains the formal structure of the doxastic and epistemic logics from which he correctly distinguishes it and is the basis for his conceptual PI. However, LIR fulfills Floridi's implied requirement that logic be regarded as a natural phenomenon dealing with other natural phenomena, recovering its original philosophical function. LIR provides a logical foundation for discussion of ethical questions based on kinds of information that complements IL. Both are reconsiderations of logic that, as Marijuan suggests, may be necessary for the advancement of information technology in an ethical direction (cf. also Brenner). IE focuses on entities as constituted by information in an overall strategy that generalizes the concept of moral agents. LIR and its related ontology naturalize critical aspects of Floridi's theses, especially, the moral value of being as such and a non-separable joint responsibility of individuals and groups. I compare IE to other current approaches to ethics and information technology (e.g., phenomenological and social constructivist). Ethical information is defined “ecologically” in process terms as reality in a physical space (cf. Floridi), with an intentional “valence,” positive and negative, in the morally valued interaction between producer and receiver. LIR is neither topic-neutral nor context independent and can support an ethics involving apparently contradictory perspectives (e.g., internalist and externalist). Ethics involves practical reasoning, and unlike standard logics, LIR supports Magnani's approach to abductive reasoning in rational moral decision making. The basis of moral responsibility and the consequent behavior of individuals involved in information and communications technologies is the same logical–metaphysical principle of dynamic opposition instantiated at other levels of reality. The way moral responsibilities are actively accepted (or not) by individuals supervenes on their primitive psychological structure, which in turn reflects an evolutionary development grounded in the fundamental dualism of the physical world. The paper concludes with some suggestions of areas of philosophical research, such as causality, identity, and the ontological turn, where convergence of the Floridi and LIR approaches might be envisaged. Their overall motivation is the same, namely, the development of strategies for reinforcing and increasing ethical sensitivity wherever possible. The ethical information concept outlined in the paper supports the function of IE, assigned to it by Floridi, of potentially determining what is right and what is wrong. KeywordsLogic-Reality-Non-separability-Ontology-Information-Dialectic-Structure-Realism-Morality-Ethics
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The technological advances of contemporary society have outpaced our moral understanding of the problems that they create. How will we deal with profound ecological changes, human cloning, hybrid people, and eroding cyberprivacy, just to name a few issues? In this book, Lorenzo Magnani argues that existing moral constructs often cannot be applied to new technology. He proposes an entirely different ethical approach, one that blends epistemology with cognitive science. The resulting moral strategy promises renewed dignity for overlooked populations, both of today and of the future.
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There are four logical possibilities for conceiving the relationship of nature and society: the reduction of society to nature, the projection of nature into society, dualism, and a nature-society-dialectic. This differentiation results in four different approaches. Nature is a self-organizing system that produces an evolutionary hierarchy of interconnected systems with specific qualities. Society is a product of nature where humans produce and reproduce structures that enable and constrain human practices in dynamic processes. Parts of nature are observed and appropriated by humans from within society, these parts are socially constructed and form a subsystem of society. The self-organization cycle of nature and the self-organization cycle of the socio-sphere are mutually connected in a productive cycle of society where natural self-organization serves as the material foundation that enables and constrains social self-organization and human production processes transform natural structures and incorporate these very structures into society as means of production (technologies, raw materials). The economy is that part of the socio-sphere where the relationship between nature and the socio-sphere is established, the mediation is achieved by human labour processes. Nature enters the economic process as material input in the form of means of production (constant capital): machines, raw materials, auxiliary materials. Organized nature that is part of the production process in the form of technology increases the productivity of labour and hence reduces the costs of variable capital (total amount of wages) and increases the speed of the production of surplus value. The production system of modern society is oriented on economic profit and productivity, ecological depletion and pollution are by-products of modernization. The Fordist production model that originated in the West and was copied by the Soviet Union is one of the major causes of the global ecological crisis. The productive forces are in modern society socially and ecologically destructive forces. In late capitalism there is a tendency of commodification and privatization of nature and human knowledge. Especially in the later writings of Marx and Engels one can find formulations that suggest a productivist logic that sees nature as an enemy opposed to man, as a resource and object that must be mastered, exploited, and controlled. But throughout the works of Marx and Engels one can find many passages where they argue that there is an antagonism between capitalism and nature that results in ecological degradation and that a free society is also based on alternative, sustainable relationships between man and nature. The idea of an alternative society-nature-relationship and of nature conservation can already be found in the works of Marx and Engels, they are precursors of ecological thinking. In Orthodox Marxism dialectical thinking has been interpreted as deterministic and mechanic laws and misused for arguing that the Soviet system is a free society. An alternative is a dialectic that stresses human practice and that structures condition alternative possibilities for action. Dialectic thinkers like Herbert Marcuse and Ernst Bloch have argued that nature is a producing subject, a non-teleological subject (Marcuse). Describing nature as a subject implies that if man destroys nature the latter as a producing subject will probably produce uncontrollable negative effects on society and that hence nature should be appropriated in sustainable ways. Matter is a natural subject that acts upon itself, whereas man is a human self-conscious subject that acts upon nature and society.
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The four-category ontology is a metaphysical system recognizing two fundamental categorial distinctions - these being between the particular and the universal, and between the substantial and the non-substantial - which cut across each other to generate four fundamental ontological categories. The four categories thus generated are substantial particulars ('objects'), non-substantial particulars ('modes'), substantial universals ('kinds'), and non-substantial universals ('attributes'). This ontology has a lengthy pedigree, with many commentators attributing a version of it to Aristotle on the basis of certain passages in one of his early works, the Categories. Although it has been revived or rediscovered at various times during the history of western philosophy, it has never found widespread favour, perhaps due to its apparent lack of parsimony and its commitment to universals. In pursuit of ontological economy, metaphysicians have generally preferred to recognize fewer than four fundamental ontological categories. This book contends that the four-category ontology has an explanatory power which is unrivalled by more parsimonious systems, and that this counts decisively in its favour. It provides a uniquely powerful explanatory framework for a unified account of causation, dispositions, natural laws, natural necessity, and many other related matters, such as the semantics of counterfactual conditionals. The book is divided into four parts: the first setting out the framework of the four-category ontology, the second focusing on its central distinction between object and property, the third exploring its applications in the philosophy of natural science, and the fourth dealing with fundamental issues of truth and realism.
Book
This book argues that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, this book demonstrates how to build a metaphysics compatible with current fundamental physics ("ontic structural realism"), which, when combined with metaphysics of the special sciences ("rainforest realism"), can be used to unify physics with the other sciences without reducing these sciences to physics itself. Taking science metaphysically seriously, this book argues, means that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects, and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such objects. The text assesses the role of information theory and complex systems theory in attempts to explain the relationship between the special sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and eliminativism about information. The consequences of the books' metaphysical theory for central issues in the philosophy of science are explored, including the implications for the realism versus empiricism debate, the role of causation in scientific explanations, the nature of causation and laws, the status of abstract and virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural kinds. © James Ladyman, Don Ross, David Spurrett, and John Collier 2007. All rights reserved.
Article
Jurisprudence and sociology have different tasks. Jurisprudence describes the legal System from within and suggests how to interprete and apply legal norms. Sociology describes the legal System from the outside. To what extent an external description can touch upon the internal structure and internal problems depends upon its conceptual instruments. The present paper proposes to use the theory of self-referential autopoietic Systems to reconstruct the self-description of legal Systems, particularly its concept of norms, its ways of legal reasoning and its legal doctrine.
Article
This paper presents some results of a case study of the usage of the social networking platform studiVZ by students in Salzburg, Austria. The topic is framed by the context of electronic surveillance. An online survey that was based on questionnaire that consisted of 35 (single and multiple) choice questions, 3 open-ended questions, and 5 interval-scaled questions, was carried out (N=674). The knowledge that students have in general was assessed with by calculating a surveillance knowledge index, the critical awareness towards surveillance by calculating a surveillance critique index. Knowledge about studiVZ as well as information behaviour on the platform were analyzed and related to the surveillance parameters. The results show that public information and discussion about surveillance and social networking platforms is important for activating critical information behaviour. In the case of studiVZ, a change of the terms of use in 2008 that brought about the possibility of targeted personalized advertising, was the subject of public discussions that influenced students’ knowledge and information behaviour. KeywordsSocial networking sites-Surveillance-Privacy-Surveillance society-Web 2.0-Critical theory-studiVZ-Consumer surveillance-Economic surveillance-Targeted advertising-Capitalism
Book
This book, a collection of essays written by the most eminent evolutionary biologist of the twentieth century, explores biology as an autonomous science, offers insights on the history of evolutionary thought, critiques the contributions of philosophy to the science of biology, and comments on several of the major ongoing issues in evolutionary theory. Notably, Mayr explains that Darwin's theory of evolution is actually five separate theories, each with its own history, trajectory and impact. Natural selection is a separate idea from common descent, and from geographic speciation, and so on. A number of the perennial Darwinian controversies may well have been caused by the confounding of the five separate theories into a single composite. Those interested in evolutionary theory, or the philosophy and history of science will find useful ideas in this book, which should appeal to virtually anyone with a broad curiosity about biology.
Article
245 p., ref. bib. : 6 p.1/4 La méthode. 3. La Connaissance de la Connaissance Il faut essayer de connaître la connaissance, si l'on veut connaître les sources de nos erreurs ou illusions. Or la connaissance est l'objet le plus incertain de la connaissance philosophique et l'objet le moins connu de la connaissance scientifique. Qu'est-ce qu'un cerveau qui peut produire un esprit qui le connaît ? Qu'est-ce qu'un esprit qui peut concevoir un cerveau qui le produit? Qu'est-ce qu'un esprit/cerveau qui ne saurait penser sans un langage et une culture ? Qu'est-ce qu'une connaissance qui croit refléter la nature des choses alors qu'elle est traduction et construction ? Comment connaître ce qui connaît ? Ce volume examine les caractères et possibilités cognitives propres à l'esprit/cerveau humain.
Article
Howard Pattee has claimed that an epistemic cut separates the world from observers and therefore from organisms. The epistemic cut imputes a linguistic mode of operation to living systems. Among evolutionary systems-theorists on the other hand there seems to be a tendency to consider living systems as just one among many other kinds of evolutionary systems that, in principle, can all be described on the basis of thermodynamics or infodynamics. This paper searches a third position, in which the epistemic cut position is defended without adopting Pattee's distinction between a dynamic and a linguistic mode. It is observed that even the dynamic mode in living systems is always a semiotic mode although index- and analog-coded rather than symbolic and digitally coded. The analog-coded messages corresponds to a kind of tacit knowledge hidden in macromolecular structure and shape (e.g., molecular complementarity), and in organismic architecture and communication, that is, in the semiotic interactions of the body.
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