The Theory Of Info-statics: Conceptual Foundations Of Information And Knowledge (studies In Systems, Decision And Control)

This book discusses the development of a theory of info-statics as a sub-theory of the general theory of information. It describes the factors required to establish a definition of the concept of information that fixes the applicable boundaries of the phenomenon of information, its linguistic structure and scientific applications. The book establishes the definitional foundations of information and how the concepts of uncertainty, data, fact, evidence and evidential things are sequential derivatives of information as the primary category, which is a property of matter and energy. The sub-definitions are extended to include the concepts of possibility, probability, expectation, anticipation, surprise, discounting, forecasting, prediction and the nature of past-present-future information structures. It shows that the factors required to define the concept of information are those that allow differences and similarities to be established among universal objects over the ontological and epistemological spaces in terms of varieties and identities. These factors are characteristic and signal dispositions on the basis of which general definitional foundations are developed to construct the general information definition (GID). The book then demonstrates that this definition is applicable to all types of information over the ontological and epistemological spaces. It also defines the concepts of uncertainty, data, fact, evidence and knowledge based on the GID. Lastly, it uses set-theoretic analytics to enhance the definitional foundations, and shows the value of the theory of info-statics to establish varieties and categorial varieties at every point of time and thus initializes the construct of the theory of info-dynamics. Preface and Prologue 7 Acknowledgements 16 Contents 17 Preamble 20 1 The Theory of Information and Knowing: Ontology Epistemology Reality 22 1.1 General Epistemic Reflections on Information and Knowledge 22 1.2 A General Framework for Examining the Definitions of the Concepts of Information and Information Structure 29 1.3 Some Reflections on the Standard Information Definition (SID) 34 1.4 The Theory of Knowing and Information Definition in the Classical Approach 36 1.5 The Essentials of the Standard Definition of Information (SDI) 39 1.6 Mathematical Theory of Information and Communication 41 2 The Non-standard Approach to the Theory of Information: Reflections on Definition and Measurement of Information 45 2.1 Reflections on Points of Entry and Departure 45 2.1.1 The BIT-IT Problem as a Visitation of the Mind-Matter Problem 47 2.1.2 The Conceptual Foundation on from IT-to-BIT-to-IT 48 2.2 Seaching for Defining Factors of a General Structure and Definition of the Conceptand Phenomenon of Information 53 2.3 The Theory of Knowing and Information Definition a the Non-standard Approach 59 3 The Theory of Info-Statics: An Epistemic Unity in Defining Information from Matter and Energy 62 3.1 The Concepts of Ontological Variety and Category 63 3.1.1 Conditions of Ontological Variety and Category 64 3.1.2 Reflections on the Information-Defining Factors 67 3.1.3 Information as an Energy-Process 68 3.2 The Set-Theoretic and Algebraic Structure of the Definition of Ontological Information 70 3.2.1 Abstracting the Universal Object and Characteristic Sets (Characteristic Disposition) from Matter 71 3.2.2 Abstracting the Universal Signal Set from the Universal Characteristic Set 74 3.2.3 Set-Theoretic Abstractions of the General Information Definition (GID) and Its Content and Phenomenon 76 3.3 The Set-Theoretic Structure, Gid, Variety and Category 77 3.4 The Summary of the General Information Definition (GID) 83 3.4.1 The Objective of the General Theory of Information: A Non-standard Approach 84 3.4.2 Information, Knowledge and Decision-Choice Systems in the Ontological Space 86 4 From the Ontological General Information Definition (OGID) To the Epistemological General Information Definition (EGID) 88 4.1 The Concepts of Epistemological Variety and Category 89 4.1.1 Epistemological Variety, Matter, Energy and the General Information Definition (GID) 91 4.1.2 Acquaintance, Epistemological Variety, and the General Information Definition (GID) 95 4.1.3 Concept, Content and the Phenomenon of Information at the Level of Epistemology 96 4.1.3.1 Exact and Complete Epistemological Information from the Ontological Space 98 4.1.3.2 Exact and Incomplete Epistemological Information from the Ontological Space 99 4.1.3.3 Inexact and Complete Epistemological Information from the Ontological Space 100 4.1.3.4 Inexact and Incomplete Epistemological Information from the Ontological Space 102 4.1.4 Noise and Deceptive Information in the Transmission Process 104 4.1.4.1 The Nature and Analytics of Deceptive Information Structure 104 4.1.4.2 Analytics of the Complexity of Imperfect Information and Transformation Noise 107 4.2 The Summary of the General Information Definition (GID) in the Epistemological Space 112 4.2.1 Reflections on the General Information Definition (GID) 115 5 Information, Varieties, Categories, Ordering, and Socio-natural Transmissions Over the Ontological and Epistemological Spaces 119 5.1 Information, Variety and Categories 120 5.1.1 The Source-Destination Relationship Over the Epistemological Space 122 5.1.2 Some Reflections on the General Information Definition and the General Theory of Information 123 5.2 The Value of Information 125 5.2.1 The Use Value of Epistemological Information 126 5.2.1.1 The Source-Destination Asymmetry and Symmetry of the Value of Information 129 5.2.1.2 The Sender-Receiver Duality and Conditions for Measuring the Value of Information 130 5.2.1.3 Conditions for the Measurement of the Value of Information 131 5.2.1.4 Information Requirements and the Construction of Possibilistic-Probabilistic Sets 133 5.2.1.5 The Possibilistic-Probabilistic Sets, Information and Actualization of a Potential Variety 136 5.2.1.6 A Simple Algebra of Possibilistic-Probabilistic Sets, Information and Actual-Potential Spaces 137 5.2.1.7 Information, Expectation, Anticipation and Surprise in Decision-Choice Systems 141 5.3 Past-Present-Future Information and Decision-Choice Actions (The Sankofa-Anoma Problem) 143 5.3.1 On the Information Concept of Discounting 144 5.3.2 On the Information Concept of Forecasting 146 5.3.3 On the Information Concept of Prediction 147 5.3.4 On the Information Concept of Prescription 150 6 The Concepts of Data, Fact and Evidence as a Chain of Conceptual Derivatives from Information 153 6.1 The Concept of Data and Knowledge as Derivatives of Information 154 6.1.1 Epistemic Modalities (Truth, Necessity, Possibility, Surety, Contingency) of Information 159 6.1.2 The Concept of Fact as a Derivative from the Concept of Data: The Similarities and Differences in Meanings and Algebraic Structures 162 6.1.3 The Similarities and Differences Between Concepts of Evidence and Facts 165 6.2 Types of Data, Facts and Evidential Things in Knowing 171 6.2.1 The General Information Definition (GID) and the Areas of Knowing as Epistemic Varieties 173 Epilogue 174 Reflections on Theories of Information, Knowledge and Decision 174 Multidisciplinary References 181 R1. Category Theory in Mathematics, Logic and Sciences 181 R2. Concepts of Information, Fuzzy Probability, Fuzzy Random Variable and Random Fuzzy Variable 182 R3. Exact Science, Inexact Sciences and Information 183 R4. Fuzzy Logic, Information and Knowledge-Production 187 R5. Fuzzy Mathematics and Paradigm of Approximate Reasoning Under Conditions of Inexactness and Vagueness 189 R6. Fuzzy Optimization, Information and Decision-Choice Sciences 192 R7. Ideology, Disinformation, Misinformation and Propaganda 192 R8. Information, Thought and Knowledge 194 R9. Languages and Information 196 R10. Language, Knowledge-Production Process and Epistemics 198 R11. Possible-Actual Worlds and Information Analytics 199 R12. Philosophy of Information and Semantic Information 200 R13. Planning, Prescriptive Science and Information in Cost-Benefit Analysis Analytics 202 R14. Possible-Actual Worlds and Information Analytics 202 R15. Rationality, Information, Games, Conflicts and Exact Reasoning 204 R16. Social Sciences, Mathematics and the Problems of Exact and Inexact Information 204 R17. Tranformations, Decisions, Polarity, Duality and Conflict 205 R18. Vagueness, Approximation and Reasoning in the Information-Knowledge Process 207 R19. Vagueness, Disinformation, Misinformation and Fuzzy Game Theory in Socio-Natural Transformations 210 R20. Weapon Foundations for Information System 210 R21. Written and Audio Languages and Information 211 Front Matter....Pages i-xxiv The Theory of Information and Knowing: Ontology Epistemology Reality....Pages 1-23 The Non-standard Approach to the Theory of Information: Reflections on Definition and Measurement of Information....Pages 25-41 The Theory of Info-Statics: An Epistemic Unity in Defining Information from Matter and Energy....Pages 43-68 From the Ontological General Information Definition (OGID) To the Epistemological General Information Definition (EGID)....Pages 69-99 Information, Varieties, Categories, Ordering, and Socio-natural Transmissions Over the Ontological and Epistemological Spaces....Pages 101-134 The Concepts of Data, Fact and Evidence as a Chain of Conceptual Derivatives from Information....Pages 135-155 Back Matter....Pages 157-197