RE: [Fis] Shannon Entropy Redux

> By Shannon entropy we must mean what Shannon meant. (I take it, Loet,
> you wouldn't want someone to name his suppositions
> Leyersdorf's theory,
> unless it actually agreed with your own work. The words we
> choose really
> do matter, because they carry meaning and content, as you've
> explained.
> If we call it Shannon entropy then it ought to be exactly
> what Shannon
> meant by his entropy.)
>
> So, Shannon entropy is the uncertainty in the distribution of
> a physical
> system, just what von Neumann, and Boltzmann before him, were also
> modeling with that same equation. As distinct from
> incorrectly calling
> something Shannon entropy just because an equation of that
> form is used
> to analyze some system. If the uncertainty in the
> distribution doesn't
> increase monotonically, it cannot be Shannon entropy that's being
> described, for example.

Dear Michel,

I think that we now agree. Shannon gave his formulas a physical meaning,
but they can be used outside this context and then be provided with
other meanings This is precisely what Weaver wrote in his second chapter
(at p. 117):

" ... and that one should say, at the end, that this analysis has so
penetratingly cleared the air that one is now, perhaps for the first
time, ready for a real theory of meaning."

Thus, we can use the Shannon-equations in other contexts, but it is
perhaps wise not to call it "Shannon entropy" because of the
connotation. I usually call it "Shannon-type information" (in order to
keep the distinction with "meaningful information"). Alternatively, one
can call it probabilistic entropy (as only mathematical and therefore
different from physical entropy).

With kind regards,

Loet

  _____

Loet Leydesdorff
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681
 <mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net> loet@leydesdorff.net ;
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/> http://www.leydesdorff.net/

 <http://www.upublish.com/books/leydesdorff-sci.htm> The Challenge of
Scientometrics ; <http://www.upublish.com/books/leydesdorff.htm> The
Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society
Received on Sun Jun 13 12:40:04 2004