Re: SV: Biological Information

Dear Birger Hjorland,

you sure remember Weizsaeckers double definition of information:
- information is what generates information
- there is information only under a concept (begriff).
Both aspects are interrelated. _Concept_ is understood primarily
under a linguistic perspective (so there is only information in
linguistic systems), but then Weizsaeckers widens his perspective and
consider also biological (and physical) structures as _concepts_
(and, consequently, as _languages_). This is a very classical
(metaphysical) view (connecting _forms_ (Plato's _idea_) with
_concept_ (Plato's _nous_). What is called _information_ is dependent
of the corresponding _form_ (or system). Information is therefore,
not an _accident_ of a given _substance_ but something we apply to
different kinds of systems. It is a _second order category_ (or, in
the language of Kantian tradition, a _Reflexionsbegriff_).
So I agree with you, that the _same stone_ is a different kind of
_information_ for the Geologist or the Archeologist or - for a lizard
looking for shelter! In the terminology of _hermeneutics_ (= theory
of interpretation) we would say that information is always related to
a _pre-understanding_
kind regards
r. capurro

Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 11:45:47 +0100 (MET)
Reply-to: fis@listas.unizar.es
From: Hjxrland Birger <BH@db.dk>
To: Multiple recipients of list <fis@listas.unizar.es>
Subject: SV: Biological Information

> Prof.Dr. Werner Ebeling just wrote:
> > * What is information ?
> All things around us are informations.
> This makes no sense to me. If everything is information why we try to
> define it ???? Then its no need in any definition.
>
Answer: Professor Michael Buckland has written: Just like everything
might be symbolic, everything might be informative (information). It
depends on the potential questions, that can be answered. Then Bucklands
argue, that the quality of being informative is always situational. In
my book "information seeking and subject representation" from 1997 I
develop this a step further and argues that information systems
represent information according to their specific goals or target
groups. A stone in the field can represent different information for the
geologist and the archeologist, and information systems are not
"universalistic", but integretes the information from the stone in the
field into the collective knowledge in, e.g., geology and archeology.
Kind regards,

Birger Hjxrland

Head of Department, Ph.d.
Royal School of Library and Information Science
6 Birketinget
DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark

Phone: +45 32 58 60 66
Fax: +45 32 84 02 01
e-mail: bh@db.dk
homepage: http://www.db.dk/nhs/bh/home_uk.htm

> ----------
> Fra: Prof.Dr. Werner Ebeling[SMTP:werner@summa.physik.hu-berlin.de]
> Sendt: 13. februar 1998 15:53
> Til: Multiple recipients of list
> Emne: Re: Biological Information
>
> To Gunter Dubrau
> and others
>
> > > * What is information ?
> >
> > All things around us are informations.
> This makes no sense to me. If everything is information why we try
> to define it ???? Then its no need in any definition.
>
> Information is a basic concept and that means
> it cannot be deduced to other concepts.
> Other basic concepts are mass, energy etc. which in fact also
> cannot be defined in a strict deductive sence (see Poincare !!!)
>
> >
> > Matter and energy are also informations consists of informations
> What daoe it mean ????????????
>
>
>
> > And Measurement are the possibility for human to percept
> informations.
> >
> I agree with Wiener: Information is information not matter nor energy
> !!!!!
>
> Beste Gruesse
>
> Werner Ebeling
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
>
Received on Sat Feb 21 20:42:58 1998