Philosophy of Information (Handbook of the Philosophy of Science)

Information is a recognized fundamental notion across the sciences and humanities, which is crucial to understanding physical computation, communication, and human cognition. The Philosophy of Information brings together the most important perspectives on information. It includes major technical approaches, while also setting out the historical backgrounds of information as well as its contemporary role in many academic fields. Also, special unifying topics are high-lighted that play across many fields, while we also aim at identifying relevant themes for philosophical reflection. There is no established area yet of Philosophy of Information, and this Handbook can help shape one, making sure it is well grounded in scientific expertise. As a side benefit, a book like this can facilitate contacts and collaboration among diverse academic milieus sharing a common interest in information. . First overview of the formal and technical issues involved in the philosophy of information. Integrated presentation of major mathematical approaches to information, form computer science, information theory, and logic. Interdisciplinary themes across the traditional boundaries of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. 9780444517265 Front Cover 1 Philosophy of Information: Volume 8 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 8 General Preface 6 List of Contributors 10 List of Commentators 12 Acknowledgements 14 Part A. Introduction and Scene Setting 16 Chapter 1 Introduction: Information is what Information does 18 1 INTRODUCTION: WHY THIS HANDBOOK? 18 2 A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF INFORMATION 19 3 INFORMATION THEORIES, THREE MAJOR STRANDS 24 4 THE CHAPTERS OF THIS HANDBOOK 28 5 INTEGRATIVE THEMES AND NEW QUESTIONS 30 6 CONCLUSION, AND THE PURPOSE OF THIS HANDBOOK ONCE MORE 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY 39 Part B. History of Ideas: Information Concepts 42 Chapter 2 Epistemology and Information 44 1 NECESSARY CLARIFICATIONS: MEANING, TRUTH, AND INFORMATION 44 2 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION 46 3 USING COMMUNICATION THEORY 48 4 THE COMMUNICATION CHANNEL 52 5 RESIDUAL PROBLEMS AND CHOICES 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY 61 Chapter 3 Information in Natural Language 64 1 INTRODUCTION 64 2 A TALE OF TWO DEVELOPMENTS 69 3 MODELLING MEANING IN CONTEXT 88 4 MODELLING DISCOURSE CONNECTIONS 100 5 MODELLING THE RECIPIENT 110 6 INFORMATION IN NATURAL LANGUAGE 115 7 PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES 119 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 122 BIBLIOGRAPHY 122 Chapter 4 Trends in the Philosophy of Information 128 1 INTRODUCTION 128 2 DEFINING THE PHILOSOPHY OF INFORMATION 128 3 OPEN PROBLEMS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF INFORMATION 131 4 THE NATURE OF INFORMATION 132 5 THE DYNAMICS OF INFORMATION 134 6 THE CHALLENGE OF A UNIFIED THEORY OF INFORMATION 135 7 THE DATA GROUNDING PROBLEM: HOW DATA ACQUIRE THEIR MEANING 135 8 THE SEMANTIC PROBLEM: HOW MEANINGFUL DATA ACQUIRE THEIR TRUTH VALUE 136 9 INFORMATION PROCESSING AND THE STUDY OF COGNITION 137 10 SCIENCE AND INFORMATION MODELLING 138 11 THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF INFORMATION 139 12 NATURALISED INFORMATION 140 13 THE IT FROM BIT HYPOTHESIS 141 14 CONCLUSION 142 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 142 BIBLIOGRAPHY 143 Chapter 5 Learning and the Cooperative Computational Universe 148 1 INTRODUCTION 148 2 AN UNEASY MARRIAGE BETWEEN LEARNING AND KNOWING: PARTICIPATION VERSUS CONSTRUCTION 154 3 THE RIDDLE OF HUMAN EFFICIENCY 156 4 LEARNING, COMPUTATION, INFORMATION AND ENTROPY 159 5 THE COOPERATIVE COMPUTATIONAL UNIVERSE 176 6 CONCLUSION 180 BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 Part C. Three Major Foundational Approaches 184 Chapter 6 The Quantitative Theory of Information 186 1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF INFORMATION THEORY 186 2 BEYOND YES AND NO 199 3 DUALITY BETWEEN TRUTH AND DESCRIPTION 205 4 IS CAPACITY ONLY USEFUL FOR ENGINEERS? 220 5 MULTI-USER COMMUNICATION 223 6 CONCLUSIONS 229 BIBLIOGRAPHY 229 Chapter 7 The Stories of Logic and Information 232 1 INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY 232 2 INFORMATION IN LOGIC 234 3 INFORMATION AS RANGE: STATE SPACES, EPISTEMIC, AND DOXASTIC LOGIC 238 4 INFORMATION FLOW AND DYNAMIC LOGIC 248 5 INFORMATION AS CORRELATION: THE WORLD OF SITUATION THEORY 253 6 MERGING RANGE AND CONSTRAINT VIEWS 269 7 INFORMATION AS CODE: SYNTAX, PROOF AND COMPUTATION 277 8 SEMANTICS, SYNTAX AND PROOF: MERGING PERSPECTIVES 281 9 CONCLUSION: LOGIC AS INFORMATION THEORY 288 10 FURTHER TOPICS AND BROADER OUTREACH 289 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 289 BIBLIOGRAPHY 290 Chapter 8 Algorithmic Information Theory 296 1 INTRODUCTION 296 2 KOLMOGOROV COMPLEXITY: ESSENTIALS 297 3 OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY 301 4 KOLMOGOROV COMPLEXITY: DETAILS 303 5 SHANNON AND KOLMOGOROV 312 6 MEANINGFUL INFORMATION 318 7 PHILOSOPHICAL IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 327 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 331 BIBLIOGRAPHY 331 Part D. Major Themes in Transforming and Using Information 334 Chapter 9 Ockham's Razor, Truth, and Information 336 1 INTRODUCTION 336 2 STANDARD ACCOUNTS 336 3 DIAGNOSIS 343 4 TRAVELER'S AID 344 5 SOME EXAMPLES 345 6 INFERENCE OF THEORETICAL STRUCTURE 352 7 EMPIRICAL STRATEGIES AND CONVERGENT SOLUTIONS 353 8 EMPIRICAL COMPLEXITY DEFINED IN TERMS OF EFFECTS 354 9 OCKHAM'S RAZOR 355 10 STALWARTNESS AND EVENTUAL INORMATIVENESS 356 11 EPISTEMIC COSTS OF CONVERGENCE 357 12 WORST-CASE COST BOUNDS 358 13 RELATIVE EFFICIENCY 359 14 OPTIMALITY 360 15 UNIQUE OPTIMALITY OF NORMAL OCKHAM STRATEGIES 361 16 A GENERAL DEFINITION OF EMPIRICAL COMPLEXITY 362 17 A WORD ON STOCHASTIC APPLICATIONS 364 18 OCKHAM, FALLIBILITY, AND "INFORMATION" 365 19 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 366 BIBLIOGRAPHY 366 APPENDIX 368 Chapter 10 Epistemic Logic and Information Update 376 1 PROLOGUE 376 2 INTRODUCTION: LOGICAL LANGUAGES AND REPRESENTATIONS 378 3 FURTHER ISSUES AND AREAS IN EPISTEMIC LOGIC 392 4 EPISTEMIC LOGIC: WHAT AND WHY? 399 5 DYNAMIC EPISTEMIC LOGIC 418 6 TEMPORAL REASONING AND DYNAMIC EPISTEMIC LOGIC 439 7 BELIEF CHANGE AND DYNAMIC EPISTEMIC LOGIC 446 8 CONCLUSION 462 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 464 BIBLIOGRAPHY 465 Chapter 11 Information Structures in Belief Revision 472 1 INTRODUCTION 472 2 PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON INFORMATION, TRUTH AND MIND 473 3 BELIEF CHANGE = REVISION + REFLECTION 479 4 INFERENCE OPERATIONS FOR SIMPLE CHANGE OPERATIONS: THREE EXAMPLES 483 5 REPRESENTING COHERENTIST BELIEF CHANGE BY OPERATIONS ON PRIORITIZED DATA BASES 486 6 A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF BELIEF REVISION 488 7 CONCLUSION 493 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 495 BIBLIOGRAPHY 495 Chapter 12 Information, Processes and Games 498 1 PRELUDE: SOME BASIC PUZZLES 498 2 INTRODUCTION: MATTER AND METHOD 500 3 SOME BACKGROUND THEORIES 503 4 COMBINING QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE THEORIES OF INFORMATION 522 5 GAMES, LOGICAL EQUILIBRIA AND CONSERVATION OF INFORMATION FLOW 529 6 EMERGENT LOGIC: THE GEOMETRY OF INFORMATION FLOW 544 7 CONCLUDING REMARKS 558 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 560 BIBLIOGRAPHY 560 Chapter 13 Information and Beliefs in Game Theory 566 1 ONTOLOGY OF GAME THEORY 567 2 INDIVIDUAL GATHERING OF INFORMATION 570 3 INDIVIDUAL TREATMENT OF INFORMATION 573 4 COLLECTIVE IMPACT OF INFORMATION 577 5 INDIVIDUAL PROVIDING OF INFORMATION 580 6 COLLECTIVE DIFFUSION OF INFORMATION 583 7 INFORMATION AND LEARNING 586 BIBLIOGRAPHY 590 Part E. Information in the Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences 594 Chapter 14 Information in Computer Science 596 WHAT IS INFORMATION? 596 WHAT IS "COMPUTER SCIENCE"? 598 COMPUTERS AS INFORMATION ("DATA") PROCESSORS 599 COMPUTERS DO MORE THAN "COMPUTE" 599 HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF INFORMATION 600 CLASSICAL INFORMATION THEORY 601 THE "PARADOX OF THE MONKEYS" 603 SOLOMONOFF-KOLMOGOROV-CHAITIN "ALGORITHMIC INFORMATION" 604 VON NEUMANN DUALITY 605 INFORMATION RETRIEVAL, INFORMATION REPRESENTATION, NETWORKS, AND DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION 607 QUANTUM COMPUTATION/INFORMATION 610 MODELING, SIMULATION, COMPLEX SYSTEMS, VIRTUAL REALITY 615 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 616 ETHICAL ISSUES 618 CONCLUSION 619 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 620 BIBLIOGRAPHY 620 Chapter 15 The Physics of Information 624 1 THE PHYSICS OF INFORMATION 624 2 THERMODYNAMICS 626 3 STATISTICAL MECHANICS 632 4 NONLINEAR DYNAMICS 639 5 ABOUT ENTROPY 647 6 QUANTUM INFORMATION 667 7 BLACK HOLES: A SPACE TIME INFORMATION PARADOX 689 8 CONCLUSION 693 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 694 BIBLIOGRAPHY 696 Chapter 16 Information in the Study of Human Interaction 700 INFORMATION AS AN ANALYTIC TOOL 700 INFORMATION 702 HOW DOES INFORMATION ARISE? 705 SITUATION THEORY 707 AN EXAMPLE OF HUMAN INTERACTION 712 AN INFORMATION-BASED ANALYSIS OF THE SACKS EXAMPLE 715 AN EXAMPLE FROM INDUSTRY 720 THE UTILITY AND RELEVANCE OF THE INFORMATION STANCE 722 BIBLIOGRAPHY 724 Chapter 17 The Philosophy of A1 and the A1 of Philosophy 726 1 INTRODUCTION 726 2 SOME HISTORICAL REMARKS 728 3 PHILOSOPHICAL PRESUPPOSITIONS OF A1 729 4 SCIENTIFIC PRESUPPOSITIONS OF A1 736 5 COMMON SENSE AND THE COMMON SENSE INFORMATIC SITUATION 737 6 THE A1 OF PHILOSOPHY—SOME ADVICE 744 7 INFORMATION IN CONTEXTS AND ABOUT CONTEXTS 751 8 CONCLUSIONS AND REMARKS 752 BIBLIOGRAPHY 753 Chapter 18 Information, Computation, and Cognitive Science 756 BIBLIOGRAPHY 772 Chapter 19 Information in Biological Systems 778 1 INTRODUCTION 778 INFORMATION AS A TOOL 782 INFORMATION STORAGE AND PROCESSING 791 CODES 793 INFORMATION AND MEANING 795 BIOSEMIOTICS 797 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 798 BIBLIOGRAPHY 798 Index 804 #,Publisher:,North,Holland,#,Number,Of,Pages:,1000,#,Publication,Date:,2008-11-11,#,ISBN-10,/,ASIN:,044451726X #,Publisher:,North Holland,# Number Of Pages:,1000,# Publication Date:,2008-11-11,# ISBN-10 / ASIN:,044451726X Information is a recognized fundamental notion across the sciences and humanities, which is crucial to understanding physical computation, communication, and human cognition. The Philosophy of Information brings together the most important perspectives on information. It includes major technical approaches, while also setting out the historical backgrounds of information as well as its contemporary role in many academic fields. Also, special unifying topics are high-lighted that play across many fields, while we also aim at identifying relevant themes for philosophical reflection. There is no established area yet of Philosophy of Information, and this Handbook can help shape one, making sure it is well grounded in scientific expertise. As a side benefit, a book like this can facilitate contacts and collaboration among diverse academic milieus sharing a common interest in information.

• First overview of the formal and technical issues involved in the philosophy of information
• Integrated presentation of major mathematical approaches to information, form computer science, information theory, and logic
• Interdisciplinary themes across the traditional boundaries of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Annotation Information is a recognized fundamental notion across the sciences and humanities, which is crucial to understanding physical computation, communication, and human cognition. The Philosophy of Information brings together the most important perspectives on information. It includes major technical approaches, while also setting out the historical backgrounds of information as well as its contemporary role in many academic fields. Also, special unifying topics are high-lighted that play across many fields, while we also aim at identifying relevant themes for philosophical reflection. There is no established area yet of Philosophy of Information, and this Handbook can help shape one, making sure it is well grounded in scientific expertise. As a side benefit, a book like this can facilitate contacts and collaboration among diverse academic milieus sharing a common interest in information. . First overview of the formal and technical issues involved in the philosophy of information . Integrated presentation of major mathematical approaches to information, form computer science, information theory, and logic . Interdisciplinary themes across the traditional boundaries of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities