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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dear Loet and colleagues,<br>
<br>
One of the advantages of a new discipline is the simplification of
discourse, the creation of a new space where you can easily build
new knowledge without copious management of other unnecessary,
circumstantial ideas. I have already quoted in this list the
famous quotation by Whitehead about the "mental liberation" in
arithmetic that implied the use of zero. Something similar may
happen nowadays concerning the wide reaching domains of
information. But I see two problems about delineating the
"information zero". <br>
One, that life is not incorporated yet as the starting point of
communication (I do not mean "biology"--rather it is each one's
biography, historically and evolutionarily
augmented/contemplated). At the end, every living agent
"communicates" with other living agents, and the available tools
to do that are signals that mean "portions" of its own life-cycle.
We humans have shared sensorimotor tools that provide the common
ground for our communication, for exporting those missing portions
or needs in our lives. Formalizing the life cycle is quite
problematic, however. <br>
And the second "zero" concerns the need to constitute a new
informational observer, endowed with the general mental
characteristics required for information science. The observer of
physics, chemistry, etc., is well equipped and we assume that
his/her mind is properly "charged" with the corresponding
principles, theories, experiences, etc. But in the case of info
science, the topic matter is open-ended. What is the "charge" of
this new observer? Depending on our specializations, we equip this
observer with our preferred approach; so our unending back and
forth. But many other knowledge bodies (or at least the 4-5 basic
disciplines that Xueshan was commenting) may be needed to make
sense of that particular informational/communicational phenomenon
in cells, organisms, people, disciplines, enterprises,
countries... If we accept this "ecumenical" contemplation of
information science, how can that multi-observer be viable at all?
Our cognitive limitations are so obvious... An elementary
provisional solution (a pre-zero, a pre-science tool) for making
it possible was suggested in those ten principles weeks ago. <br>
In any case, I think these two absences or "zeroes" might be
successfully filled in, without having to wait for too long.<br>
<br>
Best wishes--Pedro <br>
<br>
El 26/10/2017 a las 20:08, Loet Leydesdorff escribió:<br>
</div>
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<div>Dear Terry and colleagues, </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">
<blockquote
cite="CAOJbPRJB1BwNWhAPp_Ms2+m=PyiY=KDmqZA0HnSXcXwfp63RGA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite" class="cite2">
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<div>(...) , there cannot be interminable regress of this
displacement to establish these norms. At some point
normativity requires ontological grounding where the
grounded normative relation is the preservation of the
systemic physical properties that produce the
norm-preserving dynamic. </div>
</div>
</blockquote>
I have problems with the words "ontological" and "physical"
here, whereas I agree with the need of grounding the normative.
Among human beings, this grounding of subjective normativity can
be found in intersubjectivity. Whereas the subjective remains<i>
cogitans</i> (in doubt), the intersubjective can be considered
as<i> cogitatum</i> (the thing about which one remains in
doubt). </div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492"><br>
</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">For Descartes this<i> cogitatum</i> is
the Other of the<i> Cogito.</i> The<i> Cogito</i> knows itself
to be incomplete, and to be distinguished from what transcends
it, the Transcendental or, in Descartes' terminology, God. (This
is the ontological proof of God's presence. Kant showed that
this proof does not hold: God cannot be proven to exist.)
Husserl (1929) steps in on this point in the<i> Cartesian
Meditations</i>: the<i> cogitatum</i> which transcends us is
intersubjectivity. It is not physical. The physical is<i> res
extensa</i>, whereas this remains<i> res cogitans.</i> It
cannot be retrieved, but one has reflexive access to it.</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492"><br>
</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">Interestingly, this philosophy provides
Luhmann's point of departure. The intersubjective can be
operationalized as (interhuman) communication. The codes in the
communication can relatively be stabilized. One can use the
metaphor of eigenvectors of a communication matrix. They remain
our constructs, but they guide the communication. (Luhmann uses
"eigenvalues", but that is a misunderstanding.) Using Parsons'
idea of symbolic generalization of the codes of communication,
one can continue this metaphor and consider other than the first
eigenvector as "functional differentiations" which enable the
communication to process more complexity. The model is derived
from the <i>Trias Politica</i>: problems can be solved in one
of the branches or the other. The normativity of the judiciary
is different from the normativity of the legislative branch, but
they both ground the normativity that guides us.</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492"><br>
</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">The sciences are then a way of
communication; namely, scholarly communication about
rationalized expectations. Scholarly communication is different
from, for example, political communication. An agent
("consciousness" in Luhmann's terminology) recombines
reflexively and has to integrate because of one's contingency.
The transcendental grounding is in the communication; it remains
uncertain. Fortunately, because this implies that it can be
reconstructed (by us albeit not as individuals). </div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492"><br>
</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">A non-human does not know oneself to be
contingent. Lots of things follow from this; for example, that
the non-human does not have access to our intersubjectivity as
systems of expectations.</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492"><br>
</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">Best, </div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">Loet</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492"><br>
</div>
<div id="x1f7a34362c89492">
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<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">Loet
Leydesdorff <o:p
xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">Professor emeritus,
University of Amsterdam<br>
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)<o:p
xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span
style="color:#44546A"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net"
title="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt">loet@leydesdorff.net </span></a></span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">; </span><span
style="color:#44546A"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.leydesdorff.net/"
title="http://www.leydesdorff.net/"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt">http://www.leydesdorff.net/</span></a></span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D"> <br>
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Associate Faculty, </span><span
style="color:#44546A"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt">SPRU, </span></a></span><span
style="font-size: 9pt;">University of Sussex; <o:p
xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span
style="font-size: 9pt;">Guest Professor </span><span
style="color:#44546A"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.zju.edu.cn/english/"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt">Zhejiang Univ.</span></a></span><span
style="font-size: 9pt;">, Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, </span><span
style="color:#44546A"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.istic.ac.cn/Eng/brief_en.html"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt">ISTIC, </span></a></span><span
style="font-size: 9pt;">Beijing;<o:p
xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span
style="font-size: 9pt;">Visiting Fellow, </span><span
style="color:#44546A"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/"><span style="font-size:
9.0pt">Birkbeck</span></a></span><span
style="font-size: 9pt;">,
University of London; <o:p
xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<span
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EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en">http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en</a></span></span></div>
<div id="x337b22579712426abf55c20f258d0a74"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
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xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><br>
</span></div>
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<blockquote
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
-------------------------------------------------
Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
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