[Fis] Fwd: PRINCIPLES OF IS
Pedro C. Marijuan
pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
Fri Sep 22 14:20:00 CEST 2017
Dear FISers,
Taking seriously the idea of information principles, quite probably
demands a specific discussion on principles. Why do we need "principles"
at all? Because of our cognitive limitations. An infinite intellect
would traverse all spans of knowledge without any
discontinuity--presumably. In our collective scientific enterprise,
however, we create special disciplines in order to share understandable
discourses between the limited individuals of each thought-collective.
As knowledge accumulates and gets more and more complex, particularly in
the encounter with other discourses, the growing epistemic distances
fragment the original discipline, and a new subdiscipline becomes
necessary. It starts then a fresh new discourse, with its own
principles. In my brief mention of Ortega, what he accuses Leibnitz is
that being the champion of principles in science, he becomes fragmentary
and asystematic in his meta-scientific/philosophical "mode of thinking":
the hypersystematic expresses himself fragmentarily (Ortega dixit). It
is curious that along the survey of principles in Ortega's book, the
most frequent interlocutor is not Leibnitz, but Aristotle! Although
Husserl, Heidegger, Descartes, Pappus, Plato, Suarez, Spinoza... and
some others big names also appear, his main concern (to my taste) is
discussing Aristotle's view of specialized disciplines starting from
their respective principles, empirically-sensuously obtained and
"uncommunicated" in between the different fields. It is very intriguing.
If the principles of different disciplines are factually
uncommunicated, the info science view of a new body of knowledge
running across all scales is caught into a difficult "principled"
position. Nevertheless, the three blocks I distinguished (info per se,
bioinfo, ecology of knowledge) seem to allow some fertile conjugation
inside/outside... but the problem remains. I think it is solvable, as in
our times there is a central element that allows a whole new scientific
discourse on information. The dense relationship between life and
information has nowadays acquired a formidable empirical background,
leveraged by the most basic disciplines--physics, chemistry, computer
science, and biology itself.
More concretely, the notion of the "information flow" can almost be
sketched properly, both in its signaling textures and in the fundamental
relationship with the life cycle--and not very differently along the
evolutionary process. Thereafter, recombination appears as one of the
fundamental emergences in the growing complexity of the evolving
information dynamics around life cycles and information/energy flows.
The recombination phenomenon happens for the knowledge-stocks of cells,
nervous systems, enterprises, sciences-technologies-cultures... It
accumulates amazing combinatoric, topological, dynamic, and closure
properties in the different realms, flowing up and down among scales,
multidimensionally, and maintaining afloa the whole game of adaptive
existences.
Our disciplines may apparently work by themselves, autonomously, but
actually they do not. Rather than "on top", they work "on tap". They
endlessly recombine in the ecology of knowledge, differently for each
problem and for each occasion, creating new theoretical and applied
subdisciplines in the thousands. Information science has to shed light
on that fundamental factor of contemporary societies. And more
"psychologically" this discipline has to put LIFE, both individual life
and social life, at the very center of the sharing of meaning. A new way
of thinking starting from specific information principles will liberate
our limited intellects to more creative endeavors. It is time to quote
Whitehead: "Civilization advances by extending the number of important
operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations
of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle —they are strictly
limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at
decisive moments."
Best wishes--Pedro
El 20/09/2017 a las 17:46, Michel Godron escribió:
>
> My remarks are written in red
>
> Bien reçu votre message. MERCI. Cordialement. M. Godron
> Le 20/09/2017 à 13:54, Pedro C. Marijuan a écrit :
>> Dear FISers,
>>
>> Many thanks for all the comments and criticisms. Beyond concrete
>> agreements/disagreements the discussion is lively, and that is the
>> main point. It is complicate pointing at some fundamental, ultimate
>> reality based on disciplinary claims. Putting it differently, the
>> hierarchies between scientific disciplines were fashionable
>> particularly in the reductionism times; but now fortunately those
>> decades (70s, 80s) are far away. Actually, the new views taking shape
>> are not far from the term "knowledge recombination" that appears in
>> some of the principles discussed. Modern research could be typified
>> by being: curiosity-led, technologically driven, multi-scaled,
>> interdisciplinary, and integrative (paraphrasing Cuthill et al.,
>> 2017). Contemporary philosophers like John Dupré have dealt with some
>> soft "perspectivism" but they do not deal with the disciplinary
>> recombination rigorously. I think this is one of the main concerns of
>> our nascent info-science.
>> Rafael in his message enters into some undergrounds of the idea of
>> Principles/Methods/Explanations in the way Ortega discusses it for
>> Leibnitz. That book is particularly dense, and I am not aware of
>> interesting synthesis about it. One of its early claims is that
>> Principles have to be evident (intuitive for Husserl), useful for
>> verification and for the construction of logical proofs, and further
>> they have to open "new ways of thinking" ("modos de pensar" for
>> Ortega).I fully agree. For Leibnitz, according to Ortega, "thinking
>> is proving" so the classical emphasis was on the logical power of
>> principles. Leibniz has built une "combinatoire" calculable .But
>> their capability to support an inspiring new way of thinking was
>> ignored or just left implicit. Leibniz has largely developed new ways
>> of thinking, mainly in his /Théodicée//./ ! And this is a big problem
>> not only in our field but in many multidisciplinary endeavors:
>> excellent research ideas are accompanied by really vulgar
>> "metaphysics" (or better, metadisciplinary views). See for instance
>> the Big Data research on so-called "social physics". Or the excellent
>> book on "Scale" recently published (great at climbing from atoms to
>> cells, organisms, enterprises, and cities; but really poor in the
>> multifarious information/communication underlying worlds).The book
>> /Ecologie et évolution du monde vivant /showed how Brillouin's
>> information helps to understand Life at all scales by
>> self-organization. Would you like that I send two or three pages
>> explaining that in my poor english ?
>> Anyhow, these are superficial comments inspired by the many excellent
>> messages exchanged. There is a self-organization of the discussion
>> taking place, and it is nice that we are concentrating discussion on
>> the 3 first principles, somehow devoted to information per se. Once
>> we smash these topics, we may go for the biologically related
>> (principles 4-6), later on for the recombination and ecology of
>> knowledge (principles 7-9), and finally for the ethical goals of our
>> new science efforts, as Joseph has commented (principle 10).
>>
>> Best whishes to all
>> --Pedro
>>
>>
>> The El 19/09/2017 a las 11:30, Pedro C. Marijuan escribió:
>>>
>>> -------- Mensaje reenviado --------
>>>
>>> Asunto: Re: [Fis] PRINCIPLES OF IS
>>> Fecha: Tue, 19 Sep 2017 09:21:51 +0200
>>> De: Rafael Capurro <rafael at capurro.de>
>>> Responder a: rafael at capurro.de
>>> Para: Pedro C. Marijuan <pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear Pedro,
>>>
>>> a short comment to your intro to the 10 principles: I very much
>>> agree with your views (following Ortega) that information science
>>> can be conceived as a multifaceted or "multifarious" network of
>>> concepts and theories dealing phenomena partly related partly not
>>> (yet) related with each other for which we need different
>>> languages/concepts and 'translations' and kinds of calculations also
>>> with regard to their goals and 'utility'.
>>>
>>> If this makes sense, then we should try to develop some kind of
>>> 'principles' or 'archai' in the Greek sense, i.e., of 'initial
>>> forces' that give rise to possibilities of 'un-concealing' different
>>> kinds of phenomena that we could not see when disregarding other
>>> paths or by not entering through other 'portals' each portal
>>> announcing different kinds of what makes sense or not when entering
>>> the path.
>>>
>>> Sometimes it makes sense to go up and see the landscapes from the
>>> top, knowing that this view(s) from the top also conceal a lot of
>>> things on the bottom. It is easiear to understand these 'principles'
>>> if we have experience with walking in the mountains (but also in
>>> other natural and artificial environments like a forest, a desert,
>>> cities etc.). Maybe we could learn from such experiences which kind
>>> of 'principles' are to be conssidered in the 'methods' (hodos =
>>> path) of scientific research.
>>>
>>> So, my suggestion is to invite our FIS colleagues to describe
>>> phenomenologically their walking experiences and 'principles' in
>>> different enviroments (mountains etc.) and try to 'translate'
>>> (trans-late) them into the field of information science.
>>>
>>> Best
>>>
>>> Rafael
>>>
>>>> Dear FIS Colleagues,
>>>>
>>>> As promised herewith the "10 principles of information science". A
>>>> couple of previous comments may be in order.
>>>> First, what is in general the role of principles in science? I was
>>>> motivated by the unfinished work of philosopher Ortega y Gasset,
>>>> "The idea of principle in Leibniz and the evolution of deductive
>>>> theory" (posthumously published in 1958). Our tentative information
>>>> science seems to be very different from other sciences, rather
>>>> multifarious in appearance and concepts, and cavalierly moving from
>>>> scale to scale. What could be the specific role of principles
>>>> herein? Rather than opening homogeneous realms for conceptual
>>>> development, these information principles would appear as a sort of
>>>> "portals" that connect with essential topics of other disciplines
>>>> in the different organization layers, but at the same time they
>>>> should try to be consistent with each other and provide a coherent
>>>> vision of the information world.
>>>> And second, about organizing the present discussion, I bet I was
>>>> too optimistic with the commentators scheme. In any case, for
>>>> having a first glance on the whole scheme, the opinions of
>>>> philosophers would be very interesting. In order to warm up the
>>>> discussion, may I ask John Collier, Joseph Brenner and Rafael
>>>> Capurro to send some initial comments / criticisms? Later on, if
>>>> the commentators idea flies, Koichiro Matsuno and Wolfgang
>>>> Hofkirchner would be very valuable voices to put a perspectival end
>>>> to this info principles discussion (both attended the Madrid bygone
>>>> FIS 1994 conference)...
>>>> But this is FIS list, unpredictable in between the frozen states
>>>> and the chaotic states! So, everybody is invited to get ahead at
>>>> his own, with the only customary limitation of two messages per week.
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes, have a good weekend --Pedro
>>>>
>>>> *10 **PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION SCIENCE*
>>>>
>>>> 1. Information is information, neither matter nor energy.
>>>>
>>>> 2. Information is comprehended into structures, patterns, messages,
>>>> or flows.
>>>>
>>>> 3. Information can be recognized, can be measured, and can be
>>>> processed (either computationally or non-computationally).
>>>>
>>>> 4. Information flows are essential organizers of life's
>>>> self-production processes--anticipating, shaping, and mixing up
>>>> with the accompanying energy flows.
>>>>
>>>> 5. Communication/information exchanges among adaptive life-cycles
>>>> underlie the complexity of biological organizations at all scales.
>>>>
>>>> 6. It is symbolic language what conveys the essential communication
>>>> exchanges of the human species--and constitutes the core of its
>>>> "social nature."
>>>>
>>>> 7. Human information may be systematically converted into efficient
>>>> knowledge, by following the "knowledge instinct" and further up by
>>>> applying rigorous methodologies.
>>>>
>>>> 8. Human cognitive limitations on knowledge accumulation are
>>>> partially overcome via the social organization of "knowledge
>>>> ecologies."
>>>>
>>>> 9. Knowledge circulates and recombines socially, in a continuous
>>>> actualization that involves "creative destruction" of fields and
>>>> disciplines: the intellectual /Ars Magna./
>>>>
>>>> 10. Information science proposes a new, radical vision on the
>>>> information and knowledge flows that support individual lives, with
>>>> profound consequences for scientific-philosophical practice and for
>>>> social governance.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> -------------------------------------------------
>>>> Pedro C. Marijuán
>>>> Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
>>>> Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
>>>> Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
>>>> Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0
>>>> 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
>>>> Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
>>>> pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
>>>> http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
>>>> -------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Prof.em. Dr. Rafael Capurro
>>> Hochschule der Medien (HdM), Stuttgart, Germany
>>> Capurro Fiek Foundation for Information Ethics (http://www.capurro-fiek-foundation.org)
>>> Distinguished Researcher at the African Centre of Excellence for Information Ethics (ACEIE), Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
>>> Chair, International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE) (http://icie.zkm.de)
>>> Editor in Chief, International Review of Information Ethics (IRIE) (http://www.i-r-i-e.net)
>>> Postal Address: Redtenbacherstr. 9, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany
>>> E-Mail:rafael at capurro.de
>>> Voice: + 49 - 721 - 98 22 9 - 22 (Fax: -21)
>>> Homepage:www.capurro.de
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Fis mailing list
>>> Fis at listas.unizar.es
>>> http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
>>
>>
>> --
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> Pedro C. Marijuán
>> Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
>> Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
>> Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
>> Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0
>> 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
>> Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
>> pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
>> http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
>> -------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Fis mailing list
>> Fis at listas.unizar.es
>> http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
>
--
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0
50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
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