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Concept of Information - Rafael Capurro
Concept of Information - Rafael Capurro
ISSN 1726-670X
http://www.triple-c.at
Rafael Capurro
Steinbeis-Transfer-Institut Information Ethics (STI-IE) Redtenbacherstrasse 9, 76133 Karlsruhe (Germany),
E-mail: [email protected]; Web: http://www.capurro.de/
Abstract: This text provides an overview of the complex history of the concept of information in the Greek-Latin as well as
in the Medieval and Modern traditions. It connects the Latin etymology of the term informatio with the Greek concepts of
eidos/idea and morph and shows how the objective meaning of information (giving form to something) becomes obsolete
in modernity where only the communicational meaning (telling something (new) to someone) remains. Information theories
in the 20th Century are related to the development of technical systems of message transmission. They give rise to a
renaissance of the objective notion of information but under a different framework as the one of the classic pre-modern
philosophy. Establishing a connection between the concepts of information and message several options are presented
leading to a concept of information based on a theory of messages.
Acknowledgement: The following text is partly based on the common article by Rafael Capurro and Birger Hjrland
(Capurro & Hjorland, 2003). All changes and additions are by Rafael Capurro. This text was originally written in Spanish.
The author thanks Fernando Elichirigoity (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) for polishing this translation. He also
thanks Jos Mara Daz Nafra (Universidad Alfonso X) and Mercedes Osorio for their careful proofreading of the
manuscript.
o explore the history of a concept can how Ulysses deceives Penelope: Many a
be boring and useless as far as such plausible tale (tymoisin homoia) did Ulysses
history gives a mere account of semantic further tell her (Od. 19, 203), without
changes petrified in encyclopaedias and revealing her his true identity and without
related to obsolete scientific theories or telling her, of course, about his erotic
philosophical speculations of purely historical adventures with Circe, Calypso, the sirens
interest. This is evident where such analysis and Nausicaa, to mention just a few highlights
refers just to notions, i.e., to words and their from his travel back home that took him some
signifiers. In this case the analysis does not ten years.
deal with the apparent adequacy of a concept What positive and productive sense might
with a phenomenon but with the history of arise from the analysis of the past, present,
semantic changes in different languages. and future of the concept of information? The
These changes are even more unclear and answer to this question depends upon what
accidental as in the case of scientific or we understand by language. The relation
philosophical concepts. We find them also between human, world and language has
petrified in etymological dictionaries that only been one of the main themes of philosophy in
th
a nave mind might consider as a source of the 20 Century with regard to what has been
the supposed true meaning of a term, which is called the linguistic turn that took place in
precisely the etymological meaning of the analytic philosophy as well as in some
term etymology, which comes from Greek philosophical schools of continental
tymon which means the true sense as philosophy such as phenomenology and
opposite to a lie. Homer tells, or better: sings, hermeneutics influenced particularly by
linguistics and semiotics. Under this divisions are somehow arbitrary particularly if
perspective language is not a neutral and seen within a linear evolution while in fact
transparent medium but an unavoidable every human society is based on
condition that pervades our knowledge of informational processes although not of the
reality as well as our action upon it. This same kind as the present digital information
means, following the Kantian tradition, that media. The predominance of a distinctive
reality is being articulated in language and factor allows us, for good or for bad, to use
vice versa, the analysis of language shows, adjectives in order to qualify an epoch, while
although under certain implicit conditions, who other aspects, maybe no less relevant, remain
we are and in which world we live. This was hidden. Every concept is embedded in a
particularly emphasized by Wittgenstein with historical network of relations which include
his conception of meaning as use and the metaphoric and metonymic changes in natural
relation of such use(s) to forms of life and languages as well as in artificial ones
1
language games. Without overemphasizing including scientific theories and philosophic
Wittgensteins linguistic pragmatism, I would speculations. Such changes can be observed
like to stress the insight that our knowledge in all their complexity particularly in classical
about the world as well as about our actions literary works. In the field of philosophy these
upon it cannot avoid language, although it is changes are crucial at least as far as
possible to take a critical distance from the philosophy is understood as a methodological
contingent meanings of notions, i.e., of the reflection on the conceptual basis of the world
different uses of words in everyday language, and the human being. The Historical
and concepts, i.e., the definition of a notion Dictionary of Philosophy is an example of
within a theory, allowing us not only to create such a genealogical conceptual analysis that
new forms of life but also new scientific took some thirty years to get done and whose
2
theories. result is, I believe, neither boring nor useless.
From this perspective the analysis of the If the human world is a world of things that
history of a concept, including its signifiers, we either discover or make and share within
becomes a task similar to the one of a and from language including also what is
geologist who tries to reconstruct natural beyond language, to which concepts such as
processes, by exploring now world views the Kantian things in themselves or Lacans
based on traces that often appear as almost the real point to and if we understand the
insignificant, laid down on different material expression the world of language in both
and/or linguistic carriers interrelated through senses of the genitive (subjectivus and
underground currents in different epochs. objectivus), then we can undertake the task of
Geology becomes genealogy (Capurro, 1996) exploring the past, present, and future of the
pp. 259-270). A genealogical analysis is concept of information which is maybe one of
particularly interesting if such concepts are the most popular and controversial of our age
being used to characterize a society or even a not only in everyday life but also in scientific
whole epoch. It is even crucial when we want theories, particularly since the second half of
3
to give plausible reasons why they have the 20th Century.
acquired such a relevance and how we can My interest in this matter arose some thirty
change them and their underlying forms of years ago from the paper of the German
life as well. physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von
We live, it has been said many times, in an Weizscker (1912-2007) Language and
information society or even in an information
2
age as opposed to the industrial and the Joachim Ritter et al. (Ed.): Historisches Wrterbuch
agrarian ones. Of course, such epoch der Philosophie. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft (1971-2007), 13 Vols. See particularly
1
H. Schnelle: Information, pp. 116-117.
See Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophische 3
For a detailed analysis of the etymology of the
Untersuchungen. In ibid. Werkausgabe, Band 1. Frankfurt concept of information see my: Information. Ein Beitrag
am Main: Suhrkamp 1984, 43: Die Bedeutung eines zur etymologischen und ideengeschichtlichen
Wortes ist sein Gebrauch in der Sprache (The meaning Begrndung des Informationsbegriffs. Munich: Saur 1978.
of a word is its use in language). See also 23, 138, [Online version] <http://www.capurro.de/info.html>.
156.
Information, presented for the first time in decision relating the concept of information to
1959 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich its everyday present subjective sense of
(Weizscker, 1974). Weizscker writes: communicating something (new) to someone
and to project this concept some 2.500 years
Today we are accustomed to think
back without asking which terms other than
about information as something different
eidos or morph in the Greek (and Latin)
from matter and consciousness. But
tradition could better match the present
what we have discovered is in fact an old
subjective use such as, for instance, the
truth in a new place. It is Platos eidos or
complex concept of lgos (word, language) as
the Aristotelian form, appearing in such a
th well as the concept of angela (message). We
way that also a human being of the 20
are thus addressing the problem of translation
Century can guess their meaning. [my
that can never find an adequate solution just
translation] (Weizscker, 1974)
because every concept in different languages
Weizscker points implicitly to the famous and historical situations has a context, an
dictum by Norbert Wiener (1894-1964): echo, and a different semantic network
including the scientific and philosophic
Information is information, not matter or
theories in which concepts are embedded. In
energy. No materialism which does not
other words, our history is immersed from
admit this can survive in the present th
scratch into what 20 Century philosophy has
day. (Wiener, 1961, p.132)
called the hermeneutic circle (Hans-Georg
Obviously, a critical history of the concept Gadamer) or the indeterminacy of translation
of information is so complex that it cannot be (W.V.W. Quine).
dealt with within the framework of this short The task before us is to explore past and
article. My objective is to point to some paths present semantic changes of a concept, its
for future work, in the context of a society that uses and relations, without oversimplifications
defines itself as information as well as and without forgetting points of reference that
knowledge society, an addition arising could allow us not only to know conjecturally
probably from some kind of bad conscience the past from our present perspective but also
with regard to that concept. to take a distance from it by observing us from
The brevity of this presentation compels me the past in order to open us to future semantic
to simplify extremely this history. My paper changes that would be, according to
has a relatively simple message. The concept Wittgenstein, forms of life as well. From this
of information in classical antiquity, perspective our task becomes not only
particularly in the philosophy of Plato and academically interesting but also practically
Arisotle, is closely related, as Weiszcker and ethically relevant.
suggests, to the concepts of idea/eidos and
morph having an objective as well as a 1. The notion and concept(s) of
subjective meaning if it is permitted to use information in the past
this modern categories that are retained in
the Latin tradition with the concept of The British philosopher John L. Austin
informatio. Modernity rejects the objective (1911-1960), one of the founding fathers of
meaning in everyday language and conceives the philosophy of language, writes:
information as a purely subjective category. [A] word never well, hardly ever
Today there is a renaissance of the objective shakes off its etymology and its
meaning of the concept of information within formation. In spite of all changes in the
the context of the natural sciences as well as extensions of and additions to its
of a technology that is being called precisely meanings, and indeed rather pervading
information technology. This has a backward and governing these, there will still
effect on the use of this notion in everyday persist the old idea. [...] Going back into
language today as well as on our self- the history of a word, very often into
appraisal. Latin, we come back pretty commonly to
Of course, to follow the path opened by
Weizscker means to take a genealogical
pictures or models of how things happen human being (quibus aetas puerilis ad
or are done." (Austin, 1961, pp. 149-150) humanitatem informari solet) (Arch. 3).
The influence of Greek ontology and
The term information has a Latin origin.
Informatio has two fundamental meanings, epistemology with regard to the technical or
conceptual use of informatio is also highly
namely the action of giving a form to
relevant in Augustine as well as in Thomas
something material as well as the act of
Aquinas. Augustine calls in De trinitate the
communicating knowledge to another person.
process of visual perception the moulding of
Both meanings, the ontological and the
4 sensory perception (informatio sensus) (trin.
epistemological, are closely related. The
prefix in has in this case the meaning of 11, 2, 3) pointing to the Platonic (Theaet.
191d) and Aristotelian epistemological
accentuating an action but it can also mean a
negation like in informis (without form). The metaphors (De an. 424 a 17) of the
impression (imprimitur) of a ring seal into wax,
term informatio is used by classical authors
i.e., into memory. The Greek word for a ring
such as Vergil (70-19 B.C.) when he
describes in his Aeneid how Vulcan and the seal is daktylios, Latin digitus, where our term
digital comes from. This process is related, as
Cyclops hammered out (informatum) with their
hands lightening bolts for Zeus (Aen. 8, 426). I will show later, to the concept of message,
as far as the impression of a form or structure
Tertullian (ca. 160-220 A.D.) calls Moses
populi informator, that is, peoples educator or in a medium can be understood as the
communication of a message. In De civitate
molder, a pedagogical and political meaning
dei Augustine calls the process of illumination
that remains for many centuries in some
of the heavenly community informatio civitatis
Western languages derived from Latin.
sanctae (civ. 11, 24).
If we follow Weizsckers path we can
The concept of informatio is a key one in
further ask if there is any text in classical or
Thomas Aquinas epistemology and ontology.
medieval philosophy where the term
informatio has the same or a similar technical Aristotles hylemorphism is translated by
Aquinas as the process of in-forming matter
meaning as well as an explicit relation to the
(informatio materiae). Such process is
complex Greek philosophical concepts of
ida/eidos and morph. The answer is yes in interpreted within the background of Christian
creational metaphysics that leads Aquinas to
case of prominent thinkers such as Cicero
(106-43 B.C.), Augustine (354-430 A.D.), and clearly distinguish between physical and
biological in-formation processes (per
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 D.C.), to
modum informationis) particularly the in-
mention a few of them. Cicero, for instance,
translates in De natura deorum the Epicurean formation of the body by the soul from the
divine creational activity (per modum
concept of prlepsis, i.e., the representation of 5
creationis). This difference between
the images of the gods and things in the
informatio and creatio is alien to Greek
human soul as informatio rei (nat. deor. 1, 43).
thought. The Platonic demiourge is a pottery
In a rhetorical context Cicero wants to
describe vividly or depict (informato) the ideal god (Margel, 1995) whose activity, from
Aquinas perspective, is only per
rhetorician (orat. 7) whose highest
informationen while the Christian god is a
performance is to be able to observe what
Plato calls ideas (orat. 10). In another work transcendent cause who creates things out of
nothing (ex nihilo). Thomas Aquinas makes
Cicero defends his master, the Greek poet
thus compatible in an elegant way todays
Archias, born in Antiochia and accused of
opposition between the creationist vs. the
having acquired illegally the Roman
citizenship, by pointing to the fact that he, evolutionary approaches. From an
epistemological perspective he distinguishes
Cicero, was educated by Archias in tecniques
such as writing whose aim is to educate or in- between the moulding of sensory perception
(informatio sensus) and the moulding of the
form young people in order to become a true
intellect (informatio intellectus). He connects
4
Bibliographic data of classical sources as well as of 5
many other texts to which I refer in this article can be See the analysis in my Information, op.cit. pp. 124-
found in my Information,op.cit. 127.
both processes following the Aristotelian concept of Scholastic philosophy. What is the
doctrine of turning round towards the sense- reason for such a shift? The answer seems
appearances (conversio ad phantasmata) obvious, namely, no more and no less than
(Summa theol. I, 14.2. co/4). Aquinas the slow transformation of the substantial view
underlines the role of the active intellect of the subject into the modern
(intellectus agens) in the process of re- communicational subject enforced by the
cognizing the forms separated or abstracted decline of Scholastic philosophy which was
from the phenomena. Eventually he uses the caused by the rise of modern empirical
th
term informatio in a pedagogical and ethical science since the 17 Century. This thesis
context understood as modelling virtues needs, of course, a deeper and more detailed
8
(informatio virtutum) and moral customs analysis. The transition from the Middle Ages
(informatio morum) (Summa theol. III, to Modernity that can be observed in the loss
110.4.co/15). in everyday language of the objective
This broad technical use of informatio is meaning of information (giving a (substantial)
common but not identical to many medieval form to matter) retaining the subjective one
authors. It is codified in general (communicating something (new) to
encyclopaedias as well as in philosophical someone) can be clearly detected in the
th
dictionaries from the 18 Century on, often natural philosophy of Ren Descartes (1596-
with the remark that the ontological meaning 1650), who calls ideas the forms of thought,
does not belong any more to everyday not in the sense that these are pictured
language being only a terminus technicus in (depicate) in some part of the brain, but as
6
philosophy. This remark in a typical dictionary far as they inform the spirit itself oriented to
9
style records briefly something apparently this part of the brain. Descartes separates
neutral and objective, but it entails in fact no radically, in opposition to Aristotelian and
less than a paradigmatic change from the Scholastic philosophy, the sensory processes
medieval world view based on Greek-roman from the immediate and conscious knowledge
philosophy, and particularly on Aristotelian of ideas. As Andr Lalande remarks, this text
thought, into the modern subjective view of clearly shows the shift from the Scholastic
information as well as into scientific theories meaning of giving form to matter (donner
based upon or derived from such a view. The une forme una matire) to the modern use
shift from the conception of information as an of giving someone knowledge about
objective process to a subjective one is something (faire connatre quelque chose
common to European languages deriving from
8
Latin such as Spanish, French or Italian as John D. Peters: Information: Notes toward a critical
history. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 12, 1988, p.
well as to the ones influenced by it, such as
th 12: In the feverish demolition of medieval institutions in
English, from the 14 Century on. I take as an the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the notion that
example the listing of meanings of the information consisted in the activity or process of
Spanish term informacin and its derivates endowing some material entity with form remained largely
unchanged. But the notion that the universe was ordered
recorded in the Dictionary of the Spanish
by forms fell into disrepute, and the context of this in-
Language called de Autoridades published in forming shifted from matter to mind. Both changes
7
Madrid in 1734. As its heading informacin inaugurated a massive inversion in the meaning of
states the ontological meaning of information information.
9
does not belong any more to everyday Ren Descartes: Meditationes de prima philosophia.
Secundae Responsiones. In ibid. : Oeuvres, C. Adam &
language being only a technical term, i.e., a P. Tannery (Eds.). Paris: Vrin 1996, Vol. VII, pp. 160-
161 : Ideae nomine intelligo cujuslibet cogitationis
6
See for instance Antoine Furetire: Dictionnaire formam illam, per cujus immediatam perceptionem ipsius
universel contenant tous les mots franois tant vieux que ejusdem cogitationis conscius sum ; adeo ut nihil possim
modernes, & les termes de toutes les sciences et des verbis exprimere, intelligendo id quod dico, quin ex hoc
arts. The Hague, Rotterdam: La Veuve van Dole 1725 ipso certum sit, in me esse ideam ejus quod verbis illis
(1st ed. 1690): Informer, v. act. Servir de forme. Il ne se significatur. Atque ita non solas imagines in phantasia
dit en ce sens quen phrase philosophique. Lme informe depictas ideas voco ; imo ipsas nullo modo voco ideas,
le corps as well as my Information, op.cit. pp. 155 ss. quatenis sunt in phantasia corporea, hoc est in parte
7
See Annex. See also my Information, op.cit. pp. 140 aliqua cerebri depictae, sed tantum quatenus mentem
ss. ipsam in illam cerebri partem conversam informant.
granted it, he approached the chain and The birth certificate of the todays concept
asked the first for what offences he was of information is without doubt the article by
now in such a sorry case. Claude E. Shannon (1916-2001) A
Mathematical Theory of Communication
He made answer that it was for being a
(1948) where he refers to the everyday
lover.
semantic and pragmatic dimensions of the
"For that only?" replied Don Quixote; notion of information understood as the
"why, if for being lovers they send people meaning of a message. Shannons theory
to the galleys I might have been rowing deals with the question of how to reproduce a
in them long ago." message on the basis of its symbolic
13
codification. According to Shannon what a
"The love is not the sort your worship is
sender transmits to a receiver is not
thinking of," said the galley slave; "mine
information but a message. He classifies the
was that I loved a washerwoman's
communication systems, i.e., the systems of
basket of clean linen so well, and held it
message transmission, in three categories,
so close in my embrace, that if the arm
namely discrete (telegraphy), continuous
of the law had not forced it from me, I
(radio and TV) and mixed ones. Shannons
should never have let it go of my own will
definition of information deals strictly with the
to this moment. (Cervantes, 1991, Vol. I,
potential selections of messages or, more
chapter 22).
precisely, of the signs available in order to
This text clearly shows the modern use of codify them. This theory does not deal with
the notion of information within an communication as transmission of meaning or
epistemological and communicational context with information as the meaning of a
related to the plausibility of the knowledge message. It is a theory of the codification and
transmitted based on oral as well as on transmission of messages. Shannon makes a
written communication, particularly on official correlation between information, i.e., the
documents that, if necessary, might be read number of possible selections needed for the
publicly. We may at this point suspect that the creation of a message, and the improbability
modern notion and concept of information is for such selection. This concept of information
not only based etymologically on concepts is, as Warren Weaver (1894-1978) remarks
such as eidos/ida and morph or forma but disappointing and bizarre. (Shannon &
also, as far as it means telling something Weaver, 1972, p.27) It is disappointing
(new) to someone, on the concept of lgos because it has nothing to do with the
and related therefore to the birth itself of everyday notion in English or in other
philosophy. I will come back to this issue. European languages for over, say, the last
five hundred years. And it is bizarre because it
2. The notion and concept(s) of equates two terms that are apparently
information today opposed, namely information and uncertainty.
What Shannon aims to quantify is not an
The modern subjective notion of information flow but the transmission of
information plays a key role in the so-called messages that can be continuous, discrete or
information society that emerges after World
War II together with a scientific discipline that 13
Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver: The
has its roots in bibliotecology, computer mathematical theory of communication. Urbana, IL:
science, and engineering. The application of University of Illinois Press 1972 (orig. 1949), p. 31: The
fundamental problem of communication is that of
computation to (scientific) bibliography gives
reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a
rise to information science, also called message selected at another point. Frequently the
documentation or library and information messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are
science (LIS) particularly in the Anglo-Saxon correlated according to some system with certain physical
or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of
world. Within the societal context, information
communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem.
is seen more and more as something basic to The significant aspect is that the actual message is one
the functioning of society together with capital, selected from a set of possible messages.
work and raw material.
14
mixed. This transmission is based on a see how this debate focuses on the concept
medium or, more precisely, on a messenger of information while both, Machlup and
and is understood as a formal relation Shannon, use the notion of message. It is also
between messages. By disconnecting the important to remember that the technical
concepts of information and message from concept of information arises since the end of
th th
their ancient and modern epistemological the 19 and the beginning of the 20 Century
context, Shannon opens new vistas towards when used by physicists and engineers like
an objective or formal use of these concepts, Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906), John von
explicitly setting aside the semantic and Neumann (1903-1957), Leo Szilard (1898-
pragmatic aspects which are specific to 1964), Harry Nyquist (1889-1976) and Ralph
psychic and social systems an to the modern V.L. Hartley (1888-1970) who publishes in
use of the notion of information. We are at the 1928 an article Transmission of Information
eve of Norbert Wieners (1894-1964) where he postulates that since the systems of
cybernetics and its further transformations electronic transmission have nothing to do
that provoked a long and sometimes with human beings but with machines [] it
ideological discussion opposing subjective is desirable therefore to eliminate the
and objective meanings and seeking for a psychological factors involved and to establish
unified theory of information (Prez-Montoro, a measure of information in terms of purely
2007). This debate is a testimony of the physical quantities (Hartley, 1928, p. 536).
complex history of this notion and concept(s) The philosophical debate concerning the
and its interrelation with the notion and process of naturalization or objectification of
concept(s) of message. the concept of information, i.e., its (re-
An example of this debate is the book )location beyond the human sphere, has its
edited by Fritz Machlup and Una Mansfield roots in the natural sciences but also in
The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary engineering and in computer science. When
Messages, where Machlup defends the Norbert Wiener refers to the concept of
subjective notion of information in its ordinary information as something different from matter
meaning of messages sent and/or received by and energy, he is implicitly questioning
16
the human mind and criticizes the use of this dialectical materialism. But in this present
15
term in a technical context. It is interesting to objective use of the concept of information
there are fundamental changes with regard to
14
Ibid. p. 34-35: We may roughly classify its use in the context of classic Greek and
communication systems into three main categories: Latin philosophy namely
discrete, continuous and mixed. By a discrete system we
will mean one in which both the message and the signal
are a sequence of discrete symbols. A typical case is The meta-historical celestial place (topos
telegraphy where the message is a sequence of letters noets) of Platonic ideas is now occupied
and the signal a sequence of dots, dashes and spaces. A
continuous system is one in which the message and
by worldly evolution.
signals are both treated as continuous functions, e.g., The place of nature (physis) is now
radio or television. A mixed system is one in which both occupied by quantum mechanics.
discrete and continuous variables appear, e.g., PCM
transmission of speech. PCM (Pulse-code modulation) is
The Platonic notion of participation
the digital representation of an analogical signal. (mthexis) is being substituted by the one
15
Fritz Machlup: Semantics quirks in studies of of communication.
information. In: Fritz Machlup and Una Mansfield (Eds.):
The Study of Information. Interdisciplinary Messages.
recipients state of uncertainty unchanged or increased;
New York: Wiley, 1983, p. 660. []to telling something or
and so forth. No exhaustive enumeration of persuasive or
to the something that is being told. Information is
dictatorial restrictions is here intended.
addressed to human minds and is received by human 16
For an example of the dialectical materialist concept
minds. [] The requirement of truth or correctness should
of information see A.D. Ursul: Information: Eine
exclude false or incorrect messages; the requirement of
philosophische Studie. Berlin: Dietz 1970. Wieners idea
value or usefulness should exclude messages not helpful
was further developped by Gotthard Gnther: Das
in decisions and actions; the requirement of novelty
Bewutsein der Maschinen: Eine Metaphysik der
should exclude repeated or redundant messages; the
Kybernetik. Krefeld/Baden-Baden: Agis Verlag 1963.
requirement of surprise should exclude messages that the
recipient expected; the requirement of uncertainty-
reduction should exclude messages that leave the
information transmitted by a message has a This problem brings us to the debate on the
meaning only if it has been information- concept of information in the humanities and
processed by a recipient (Stonier, 1996). social sciences (Qvortrup, 1993). It deals
Since the beginning of 1990 the group mainly with the reductionist syndrome, i.e.,
Foundations of Information Science with the fear of reducing human beings to an
coordinated by Pedro Marijun has discussed information-processing machine giving up
the concept of information following the paths social and cultural dimensions. If, according to
20
opened by Stonier and other scientists. They Gregory Bateson (1904-1980), information is
have been searching for a unified theory of a difference that makes a difference
information that includes modern subjective (Bateson, 1972, p.459) the question then
as well as objective meanings underlying the arises as to what is the difference that makes
pre-modern concept (Capurro, Fleissner & of an observer a human one. One important
Wolfgang, 1999). Some philosophers have aspect is selection. Information is the process
questioned the use of the concept of as well as the product of selection. This
information in natural sciences as a aspect plays a key role in Shannons theory of
misleading analogy or as a redundant concept information which excludes, as we have seen,
21
with regard to causality. Peter Fleissner and the semantic and pragmatic aspects of human
Wolfgang Hofkirchner have called this selection as addressed in the modern notion
problem Capurros trilemma, being in fact an of information. But although it is clear that
Aristotelian one. They point to the following human as well as non-human information
options: processes deal with selection, they differ in
1. Univocity: the concept of information means the kind of interpretation as well as with
the same in every context. Disadvantage: regard to the relation between (deterministic)
reductionism. causality and (conscious) motivation. This is
2. Analogy: the concept of information has an the reason why Yehoshua Bar-Hillel (1915-
original meaning in a specific context, for 1975) pointed to the ambiguities and
instance in human communication and can semantic traps in Shannons theory of
be applied only analogically to other levels information that he prefers to call theory of
22
of reality. Disadvantage: anthropomor- signal transmission. Bar-Hillel and Rudolf
phism. Carnap (1891-1970) developed a semantic
3. Equivocity: the concept of information has theory of information where the concept of
different meanings in different contexts. information is interpreted within a linguistic
Disadvantage: Babel syndrome. Scientific framework (Bar-Hillel & Carnap, 1953). A
discourses and theories remain similar but not identical theory was proposed
encapsulated. (Fleissner & Hofkirchner, by Fred Dretske based on the distinction
1995) between information and meaning.
Information is what is capable of yielding
20 knowledge and knowledge is relative to pre-
Pedro Marijun (Ed.) First conference on
foundations of information science. From computers and knowledge (Dreske, 1981). The concept of
quantum physics to cells, nervous systems, and societies. information is thus intimately related to human
Bio Systems 1996, 38, 87-96. See the site knowledge or, more generally, to cognitive
<http://fis.icts.sbg.ac.at/>. See also Horst Vlz: systems: knowledge is information-produced
Information I - Studie zur Vielfalt und Einheit der
Information; Information II - Ergnzungsband zur Vielfalt belief (Ibid, pp. 91-92). Cognitive systems
und Einheit der Information - Theorie und Anwendung vor capable of creating meaning are different from
allem in der Biologie, Medizin und Semiotik. Berlin: mere information processing ones such as
Akademie Verlag. computers that can only manipulate symbols.
21
Peter Janich: Informationsbegriff und methodisch-
kulturalistische Philosophie. Ethik und 22
Sozialwissenschaften, 1998, 2, pp. 169-182. See my Yehoshua Bar-Hillel: Language and information.
criticisms in: Das Capurrosche Trilemma Ethik und London: Addison-Wesley 1973 (1a. ed. 1964), p. 296:
Sozialwissenschaften, 1998, 2, pp. 188-189 and the Even more important than the change of name from
discussion in my: Informationsbegriffe und ihre Information Theory to Theory of Signal Transmission
Bedeutungsnetze. Ethik und Sozialwissenschaften, 2001, (plus, perhaps, Theory of Coding) would be to discard the
1, pp. 14-17. use of the term information within this theory, with all its
ambiguities and semantic traps.
This cognitivist limitation was criticized by information in itself as there is always some
authors like Barwise, Perry, Israel and kind of redundancy or noise. To inform others
Seligman who developed a semantic theory or oneself means, according to Bougnoux, to
based on the idea of regularity of different select and to evaluate. This is particularly
types of situations where Dretskes theory is relevant in the field of journalism, mass
seen as a particular case. Information does media, and the Internet (Bougnoux, 1993).
not refer to a property of something. It is According to Alfons Cornella enterprises are
context-dependent (Barwise & Perry, 1983; information (Cornella, 2000). The concept of
Barwise & Seligman, 1997; Israel & Perry, information plays a key role in theories of
1990). Prez-Montoro developed further this knowledge management. According to
theory, disconnecting the concept of Nonaka and Takeuchi information is
information from any kind of relation to a externalized and manageable and therefore it
receivers interpretation. The concept of can only be potential knowledge because the
information is fully situational and contingent, latter is a process that takes place only within
23
i.e., dependent on specific frameworks a cognitive subject. These theories are
(Prez-Montoro, 2007). (implicitly) related to the long history of the
Based on systems theory, Oeser points to concept of information in the library and
24
the objectivity of scientific knowledge that is information science field.
not based on the elimination of the knower but To summarize, this discussion on the
on an intersubjective information process concept of information that takes place since
th
(Oeser, 1976). Information always has a the second half of the 20 Century shows a
system as framework of reference as growing interest on the objective meaning that
conceived also by second-order cybernetics was already part of the classic pre-modern
developed by biologists Humberto Maturana tradition and which is interpreted now within
and Fracisco Varela (1946-2001) (Maturana & the framework of empirical science and
Varela, 1980; Brier, 1999, Qvortrup, 1993). information technology. There is a tendency,
According to the computer scientist Heinz von questioned by some authors, to relativize or
Foerster (1911-2002), information is a mental even eliminate the subjective dimension. It is
difference within the observer who constructs obvious that at least five hundred years of
or discovers a difference in the outside world using the notion of information in a subjective
(von Foerster, 1984). Sociologist Niklas sense in everyday language cannot be
Luhmann developed a theory of psychic and ignored or easily forgotten even if the
social systems where the construction of sciences define their concepts independently
meaning is based on a communication of the ordinary use, without always giving rise,
process whose three elements are a meaning as in this case, to a controversy that has not
offer (Mitteilung), a selection (Information), only a scientific but also a social and an
and its integration (Verstehen) within the ethical dimension. One main reason for this is
system (Luhmann, 1987, pp. 193-194). This that the objective concept of information has a
theory criticizes the metaphor of information backward effect on the self construction of the
as something that can be transmitted between subject that sees him/herself as leveled by
a sender and a receiver. The sender makes and deprived from specific differences with
already a selection as Shannon clearly saw. regard to non-human information-processing
Other authors, such as Klaus Kornwachs, systems. But, in fact, the concept of
propose a pragmatic definition of information information refers in many of its scientific
(Kornwachs, 1996). meanings to release mechanisms, as
Information is today a key concept in Karpatschof calls them (Karpatschof, 2000),
sociology, political science, and economics which can be applied specifically in different
(Castells, 1995). According to Bougnoux, the
23
concepts of information and communication See for instance Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka
Takeuchi: The knowledge-creating company. New York:
are inversely related: communication refers to
Oxford University Press, 1995.
what can be foreseen as well as to 24
For a detailed analysis of the concept of information
redundancy, while information has to do with in the LIS field see Rafael Capurro and Birger Hjrland:
what is new and unforeseen. There is no The Concept of Information, op.cit., pp. 377-396.
levels and contexts without reductionisms. In sense of our capacity of selecting and
order for this to happen it is necessary to answering messages or meaning offers
perform a genealogical study of this and other (Luhmann, 1987). What is received is
related notions and concepts that are crucial received according to the receivers form
for our age. The tendency to see ourselves as (quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis
27
objects is always latent and becomes virulent recipitur) as the medieval dictum says.
when objective knowledge and its technical The modern concept of information is
instrumentalization become a global horizon grounded etymologically not only in the
since modernity. concepts of eidos/idea and morphe or forma
but also, as far as it means communicating
3. The future of the concept of something (new) to someone, in the concept
information of lgos and is related to the birth of
philosophy. How far? As far as the Platonic
Within the framework of an emerging Socrates replaces the heteronomic structure
philosophy of information that until now does underlying the concepts of message and
not seem to become aware of the complex messenger through a method based on telling
past of this concept as well as of the or giving each other reasons (logon didnai)
underlying notion and its signifiers, Floridi instead of just letting oneself be told
defines information within the framework of something by others, particularly if they
Shannons information theory (Floridi, 2004), occupy a place of power, i.e., having the
as well as within the classical tradition of the capacity to command (Capurro, 1995). In
concept of forma. Floridis informational other words, Socrates introduces nothing less
objects are similar to Leibniz monads or than the principle of recursivity as a method
Platos ideas. They are seen also as for searching the truth. Socrates polemics
messages with different kinds of intrisic dealt with the concept of message (angela)
value (Floridi, 2003; 1999; Capurro, 2003). that was used particularly but not exclusively
Following this path already opened by in political and/or military contexts but also in
Weizscker, I would like to twist Floridis mythical and poetical ones. In this latter case
ontological or I should better say metaphysical it meant the activity of the poet as mediator or
paradigm and reverse the foundational messenger between the gods and the human
relation between message and form or being, personified by Hermes, but also by Iris,
25
informational objects. I consider the the messenger(s) of the Olympic gods.
28
givingness of such objects (or forms) and Socrates propagates a message exchange
the very fact of the given itself of such that is seemingly horizontal while retaining the
givingness as the original informational or right to autonomy of the participants in such a
angeletic (from Greek ngelos = messenger) dialogue. This allows the concept of message
phenomenon that becomes manifest to a finite to enter into a dialectical inter-play with one
subject for whom his/her own being is important transformation with regard to the
(perceived as) given and to which he/she is pre-socratic hierarchical scheme, namely the
capable to answer. The latter makes the heart introduction of reversibility that allows the
of his/her existential responsibility towards receiver of a message to transform herself
26
what he/she can be. The concept of into a sender.
givenness , in contrast to the one of creation, Recursivity and reversibility are
is a phenomenological not a metaphysical fundamental with regard to the present
one. We are responsible beings also in the concept of information within the framework of
25
cybernetics. It is not by chance that the
See my criticisms to Floridis metaphysics of
concept of message as well as of medium is
information in: Towards an ontological foundation of
information ethics. Ethics and Information technology 8, 4,
27
pp. 175-186. See for instance Thomas Aquinas, Summa
26
See Heideggers existential philosophy and his Theologica, I q.12 a.4 c.: Cognitum autem est in
criticism of metaphysics in Martin Heidegger Sein und cognoscente secundum modum cognoscentis.
28
Zeit. Tbingen: Niemeyer 1976 and my: Towards an On the semantic context of angela see my:
ontological foundation of information ethics, op.cit. Information, op.cit. pp. 46-49.
at the core of Shannons theory of Maybe we are in the process of leaving the
communication and its aftermath. Who speaks age of the book by going through the
about messages cannot avoid speaking about information age towards the age of messages
messengers. The difference between and messengers. The information age has
message and messenger is an important one. given us not only a new alphabet but also new
Platos metaphysics imagines pure, meta- forms of message codification using
linguistic or, so to speak, messenger-free particularly digital messengers. We are not
messages or ideas located in a divine place mere readers of the genetic code
(topos noets) beyond the symbolic (Blumenberg, 1986). If we see it as a
dimension of the world as perceived through message we conceive ourselves, from the
language. A message without a messenger as perspective of the age of the book (Illich,
well as a messenger without a message is a 1993), as writers. When texts, the ones of
limiting concept. Not only information but also nature as well as the ones of culture, are
media theory can find a new basis in a theory conceived as messages, writers and readers
of messages and messengers or angeletics become messengers. In order for this to work
(Capurro, 2003a; 1995; 2003b). This theory is at the social level without vertical power
still in its infancy although message societies structures that might stop arbitrarily such
develop themselves technologically and processes, it is necessary to develop
culturally with breathtaking speed. Information bidirectional, horizontal, and recursive
29
is a message that makes a difference, either dispositifs of communication. The discussion
th
as a form or as a meaning offer. This postal on the concept of information in the 20
paradigm interprets the classic Greek-Latin Century has opened our eyes to the danger of
tradition of the concept of informatio from the a unilateral, vertical, and non-recursive
modern communicational perspective. It goes transmission of messages. In other words, the
beyond the rejection of the application of the modern concept of information works as a
concepts of information and corrective with regard to the heteronomic
message/messengers to non-human contexts concept of message. And vice versa, the
when dealing with non-human concept of message shows something that
communicational or postal processes. I underlies implicitly or explicitly the concept of
suggest the need to explore and imagine information. The critical perception of this
models and rules that allow present and future tension between autonomy and heteronomy,
societies to operate on the basis of a complex horizontality and verticality, information and
reversible exchange of messages and message has been made possible today
messengers, particularly digital ones. The thanks to the system of interactive message
limits of my history of the notion of information transmission we call the Internet when we see
are obviously the ones of Western it from the perspective of the genealogy of the
philosophical tradition as well as of some concept of information that leads eventually to
Western languages as far as the notion of information ethics.
information and message/messenger are
concerned. The message of this paper, that Annex
has no missionary ambitions, is the idea of a
paradigm that connects, without leveling Real Academia Espaola: Diccionario de la
differences, human and non-human angeletic Lengua castellana, llamado de Autoridades,
phenomena. In a text that he considered his Madrid 1734, tomo I, pp. 267-268:
best book Ivan Illich writes: INFORMACION, s.f. El acto de informarse
The book has now ceased to be the informar de algo. Lat. Informatio. Fuenm.
root-metaphor of the age; the screen has S. Pio V.f.118. Por siniestras informacines
taken its place. The alphabetic text has desacreditados.
become but one of many modes of
encoding something, now called the 29
With "dispositif", sometimes translated as "aparatus"
message. (Illich, 1993, p. 3) or "device", we are recalling the term coined by Foucault
(1977).
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