<p dir="ltr">Dear Fisers,</p>
<p dir="ltr">What do we want a definition for? Is it for the sake of precision? Is it because of scientific soundness? Or because we want to fix the contours of our discipline?</p>
<p dir="ltr">Conceptual history as second order observation might shed some light on these issues. Concepts are inherently undefinable. Definire means closing, since concepts are strictly and loosely coupled at the same time to social, political and scientific contexts they remain open and flexible, in order to dynamically deliver meaning (this is what is called pragmatics in linguistics) and make communication possible.</p>
<p dir="ltr">On the other hand, openly contested concepts, such as information, contrarily to mainstream opinion, do not speak for lack of scientific soundness or of disciplinary unity. A discipline, as is the case in many social sciences, is united around common disagreements on fundamental concepts. In fact, are precisely common disagreements what make concepts fundamental ones.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What about reaching out to artificial languages which are more rational and less ambiguous, such as maths. Maths have been so resourceful because they have accomplished a function of consistency proof with regard to other languages games. I mean, by themselves they will not bring about conceptual clarity.<br>
In any case this is a polemic idea I would have to further elaborate somewhere else. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Best,</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">El mar 6, 2020 8:14 AM, "Joseph Brenner" <<a href="mailto:joe.brenner@bluewin.ch">joe.brenner@bluewin.ch</a>> escribió:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<u></u>
<div lang="FR" link="blue" vlink="blue">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";color:navy">The alternative is to give up looking for a unifying definition of information
<i><span style="font-style:italic">qua </span></i>static content and look for,
instead of a mathematical theory, a concept of information as a common dynamic process,
by definition multi-dimensional.<br>
<br>
<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";color:navy">Best,<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";color:navy"><u></u> <u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Lucida Sans Unicode"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Sans Unicode";color:navy">Joseph <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy"><u></u> <u></u></span></font></p>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt">
<hr size="2" width="100%" align="center">
</span></font></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma">
Fis [mailto:<a href="mailto:fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es" target="_blank">fis-bounces@listas.<wbr>unizar.es</a>] <b><span style="font-weight:bold">On
Behalf Of </span></b><u></u>Loet Leydesdorff<u></u><br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Sent:</span></b> vendredi, 6 mars 2020 07:48<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">To:</span></b> João Alvaro Carvalho; fis<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Fis] [External
Email] Re: defining information</span></font><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></font></p>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" id="m_8040470851150283721x73fb77058aed403">
<blockquote style="border:none;border-left:solid #cccccc 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:3.15pt;margin-top:1.9pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI"">I gave up looking for an unifying definition of
information.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI"">As soon I switch to another context (for example,
moving from the context of organisational work to the human mind or to
the cell) the key features are different.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI""><u></u> <u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI"">This problem is precisely a reason to stick to a
content-free, i.e., mathematical definition of information. Information
can then further be made relevant in any special theory. The application is not
dimension-free. <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" id="m_8040470851150283721x73fb77058aed403">
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI""><u></u> <u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" id="m_8040470851150283721x73fb77058aed403">
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI"">Best,<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" id="m_8040470851150283721x73fb77058aed403">
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI"">Loet<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
<div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" id="m_8040470851150283721x73fb77058aed403">
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Segoe UI"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI""><u></u> <u></u></span></font></p>
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