Fwd: Re: information and causality

I'm finding it tricky to post while travelling. I hope this works. -- John

****** Forwarded Message Follows *******
>To: Multiple recipients of list FIS <fis@listas.unizar.es>,
>From: "John Collier"<ag659@ncf.ca>
>Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 08:50:31 -800
>
>>Philosophical background for the meaning of information cannot be resolved

>>without our understanding of causality. Causality can be viewed as having

>>four constituents (in Aristotelian sense): material, efficient, formal and

>
>>final. Physics quantified at first the material cause (as mass), then
>>efficient (as energy). Information means quantification of the formal cause

>
>>while the final cause means (in physics) observability, i.e. it is expressed

>
>>via anthropic principle. Aristotle called the final cause 'entelechy' and
it
>
>>is not information in a common sense, but the question exists about
>>computability from the future state (works of Dubois). Aristotle emphasized

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>>that 'the forms as a knowledge' are inherited, and this was later described

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>>in genetics as a transfer of biological information. I would not accept
>>information as a primary concept including mind and matter per se, but it

>>'binds' both as signifiant and signifie, i.e. it has important semiotic
>>dimension.
>>
>>Best wishes, Andrei Igamberdiev
>>
>>
>
Received on Thu Dec 13 18:12:37 2001