Dear Pedro, I have only one request to you, in regards to your principles: Please reformulate them in Alfred Korzybski's 'English Prime', better known as 'E-Prime'.¹
I ask this as nearly all users of E-Prime have made one observation - consciously or not, an aspect perhaps best summarized by Robert Anton Wilson in his book 'Quantum Psychology'² - about it: It forces every statement written to become an operationally testable statement, provided one maps each word to a specific definition. In other words, it ensures the - purely mental & metaphorical! - spectres of Karl Popper, Wolfgang Pauli & Imre Lakatos will avoid haunting one. ;) I assume restating them in this way should pose no big difficulty for you, as 'all' this would require of you consists of the complete avoidance of any conjugations of "to be" (such as: "is") in the outcome of the process of restating the principles. Note: The writing of this email should follow this same principle, and it seems that it indeed does.³ Kind regards, Arthur Wist ¹ See Kellogg, E. W., and D. David Bourland. “WORKING WITH E-PRIME: SOME PRACTICAL NOTES.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics, vol. 47, no. 4, 1990, pp. 376–392. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42577258. Available in full at http://www.generalsemantics.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ articles/etc/47-4-kellogg-bourland.pdf ² A book which has a very unfortunate name and history, as it reminds of the well known problem of highly pseudoscientific "Quantum mysticism", although it has precisely nothing to do with this pseudoscience nonsense and instead describes a highly novel thesis within the field of transactional psychology, which merely uses parts of physics as an analogy and as a metaphor, and nothing more. Combined with the fact that the author has - in an act of self-admittedly intentional, discordian guerilla- ontological 'terrorism' - previously disseminated various pseudoscience under the pretense of fringe science doesn't exactly make this a popular work. The fact that it has - until very recently! - remained out of print didn't help, either. ³ Or at least, so the E-Primeness checker at https://www.compendiumdev.co.uk/page.php?title=eprimer claims. On 20 Sep 2017 13:56, "Pedro C. Marijuan" <pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es> wrote: > Dear FISers, > > Many thanks for all the comments and criticisms. Beyond concrete > agreements/disagreements the discussion is lively, and that is the main > point. It is complicate pointing at some fundamental, ultimate reality > based on disciplinary claims. Putting it differently, the hierarchies > between scientific disciplines were fashionable particularly in the > reductionism times; but now fortunately those decades (70s, 80s) are far > away. Actually, the new views taking shape are not far from the term > "knowledge recombination" that appears in some of the principles discussed. > Modern research could be typified by being: curiosity-led, technologically > driven, multi-scaled, interdisciplinary, and integrative (paraphrasing > Cuthill et al., 2017). Contemporary philosophers like John Dupré have dealt > with some soft "perspectivism" but they do not deal with the disciplinary > recombination rigorously. I think this is one of the main concerns of our > nascent info-science. > Rafael in his message enters into some undergrounds of the idea of > Principles/Methods/Explanations in the way Ortega discusses it for > Leibnitz. That book is particularly dense, and I am not aware of > interesting synthesis about it. One of its early claims is that Principles > have to be evident (intuitive for Husserl), useful for verification and for > the construction of logical proofs, and further they have to open "new > ways of thinking" ("modos de pensar" for Ortega). For Leibnitz, according > to Ortega, "thinking is proving" so the classical emphasis was on the > logical power of principles. But their capability to support an inspiring > new way of thinking was ignored or just left implicit. And this is a big > problem not only in our field but in many multidisciplinary endeavors: > excellent research ideas are accompanied by really vulgar "metaphysics" (or > better, metadisciplinary views). See for instance the Big Data research on > so-called "social physics". Or the excellent book on "Scale" recently > published (great at climbing from atoms to cells, organisms, enterprises, > and cities; but really poor in the multifarious information/communication > underlying worlds). > Anyhow, these are superficial comments inspired by the many excellent > messages exchanged. There is a self-organization of the discussion taking > place, and it is nice that we are concentrating discussion on the 3 first > principles, somehow devoted to information per se. Once we smash these > topics, we may go for the biologically related (principles 4-6), later on > for the recombination and ecology of knowledge (principles 7-9), and > finally for the ethical goals of our new science efforts, as Joseph has > commented (principle 10). > > Best whishes to all > --Pedro > > > The El 19/09/2017 a las 11:30, Pedro C. Marijuan escribió: > > -------- Mensaje reenviado -------- > Asunto: Re: [Fis] PRINCIPLES OF IS > Fecha: Tue, 19 Sep 2017 09:21:51 +0200 > De: Rafael Capurro <raf...@capurro.de> <raf...@capurro.de> > Responder a: raf...@capurro.de > Para: Pedro C. Marijuan <pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es> > <pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es> > > Dear Pedro, > > a short comment to your intro to the 10 principles: I very much agree with > your views (following Ortega) that information science can be conceived as > a multifaceted or "multifarious" network of concepts and theories dealing > phenomena partly related partly not (yet) related with each other for which > we need different languages/concepts and 'translations' and kinds of > calculations also with regard to their goals and 'utility'. > > If this makes sense, then we should try to develop some kind of > 'principles' or 'archai' in the Greek sense, i.e., of 'initial forces' that > give rise to possibilities of 'un-concealing' different kinds of phenomena > that we could not see when disregarding other paths or by not entering > through other 'portals' each portal announcing different kinds of what > makes sense or not when entering the path. > > Sometimes it makes sense to go up and see the landscapes from the top, > knowing that this view(s) from the top also conceal a lot of things on the > bottom. It is easiear to understand these 'principles' if we have > experience with walking in the mountains (but also in other natural and > artificial environments like a forest, a desert, cities etc.). Maybe we > could learn from such experiences which kind of 'principles' are to be > conssidered in the 'methods' (hodos = path) of scientific research. > > So, my suggestion is to invite our FIS colleagues to describe > phenomenologically their walking experiences and 'principles' in different > enviroments (mountains etc.) and try to 'translate' (trans-late) them into > the field of information science. > > Best > > Rafael > > Dear FIS Colleagues, > > As promised herewith the "10 principles of information science". A couple > of previous comments may be in order. > First, what is in general the role of principles in science? I was > motivated by the unfinished work of philosopher Ortega y Gasset, "The idea > of principle in Leibniz and the evolution of deductive theory" > (posthumously published in 1958). Our tentative information science seems > to be very different from other sciences, rather multifarious in appearance > and concepts, and cavalierly moving from scale to scale. What could be the > specific role of principles herein? Rather than opening homogeneous realms > for conceptual development, these information principles would appear as a > sort of "portals" that connect with essential topics of other disciplines > in the different organization layers, but at the same time they should try > to be consistent with each other and provide a coherent vision of the > information world. > And second, about organizing the present discussion, I bet I was too > optimistic with the commentators scheme. In any case, for having a first > glance on the whole scheme, the opinions of philosophers would be very > interesting. In order to warm up the discussion, may I ask John Collier, > Joseph Brenner and Rafael Capurro to send some initial comments / > criticisms? Later on, if the commentators idea flies, Koichiro Matsuno and > Wolfgang Hofkirchner would be very valuable voices to put a perspectival > end to this info principles discussion (both attended the Madrid bygone FIS > 1994 conference)... > But this is FIS list, unpredictable in between the frozen states and the > chaotic states! So, everybody is invited to get ahead at his own, with the > only customary limitation of two messages per week. > > Best wishes, have a good weekend --Pedro > > *10 **PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION SCIENCE* > > 1. Information is information, neither matter nor energy. > > 2. Information is comprehended into structures, patterns, messages, or > flows. > > 3. Information can be recognized, can be measured, and can be processed > (either computationally or non-computationally). > > 4. Information flows are essential organizers of life's self-production > processes--anticipating, shaping, and mixing up with the accompanying > energy flows. > > 5. Communication/information exchanges among adaptive life-cycles underlie > the complexity of biological organizations at all scales. > > 6. It is symbolic language what conveys the essential communication > exchanges of the human species--and constitutes the core of its "social > nature." > > 7. Human information may be systematically converted into efficient > knowledge, by following the "knowledge instinct" and further up by applying > rigorous methodologies. > > 8. Human cognitive limitations on knowledge accumulation are partially > overcome via the social organization of "knowledge ecologies." > > 9. Knowledge circulates and recombines socially, in a continuous > actualization that involves "creative destruction" of fields and > disciplines: the intellectual *Ars Magna.* > > 10. Information science proposes a new, radical vision on the information > and knowledge flows that support individual lives, with profound > consequences for scientific-philosophical practice and for social > governance. > > -- > ------------------------------------------------- > Pedro C. Marijuán > Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group > Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud > Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA) > Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0 > 50009 Zaragoza, Spain > Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 <+34%20976%2071%2035%2026> (& > 6818)pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.eshttp://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/ > ------------------------------------------------- > > > > _______________________________________________ > Fis mailing > listFis@listas.unizar.eshttp://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis > > > > -- > Prof.em. Dr. Rafael Capurro > Hochschule der Medien (HdM), Stuttgart, Germany > Capurro Fiek Foundation for Information Ethics > (http://www.capurro-fiek-foundation.org) > Distinguished Researcher at the African Centre of Excellence for Information > Ethics (ACEIE), Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, > South Africa. > Chair, International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE) (http://icie.zkm.de) > Editor in Chief, International Review of Information Ethics (IRIE) > (http://www.i-r-i-e.net) > Postal Address: Redtenbacherstr. 9, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany > E-Mail: raf...@capurro.de > Voice: + 49 - 721 - 98 22 9 - 22 (Fax: -21) > Homepage: www.capurro.de > > > > _______________________________________________ > Fis mailing > listFis@listas.unizar.eshttp://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis > > > > -- > ------------------------------------------------- > Pedro C. Marijuán > Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group > Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud > Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA) > Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta 0 > 50009 Zaragoza, Spain > Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 <+34%20976%2071%2035%2026> (& > 6818)pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.eshttp://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/ > ------------------------------------------------- > > > _______________________________________________ > Fis mailing list > Fis@listas.unizar.es > http://listas.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis > >
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