邬焜和信息元哲学

在2010年8月北京举行的第四届国际信息科学基础大会上,西安交通大学的邬焜教授第一次用英文提交了将近三十年来的信息理论与哲学研究成果。其理论(信息哲学的基础理论:BTPI)聚焦于信息的自然本体论属性,以及它们对于适当理解信息的社会功能的重要性。邬教授的BTPI理论,关于需要统一诸多关键学科及其规划的新信息观,作为一种元哲学对一般信息理论(这次大会的主题)而言形成了一个主要贡献。所描述的理论能够形成一个新的跨学科范式的部分,在其中信息具有核心作用。信息元哲学的协同应用能够为解决信息领域的关键性突出问题做出贡献,并为新兴信息社会的伦理学发展提供进一步的支持。

WU Kun and the Metaphilosophy of Information

At the 4th International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science in Beijing,August,2010,Professor Wu Kun of the Xi′an Jiaotong University presented,for the first time in English,the results of some thirty years of research on the theory and philosophy of information.In particular,Wu′s theory(Basic Theory of the Philosophy of Information;BTPI) focuses on the natural ontological properties of information,and their importance for a proper understanding of the function of information in society.When describing my recent extension of logic to real process systems(Logic in Reality;LIR),including information,at the same Conference,I noted that Wu′s approach embodied many critical aspects of this logic,to which its normative principles apply.Wu′s Basic Theory defines a Philosophy of Information as a Metaphilosophy,the Metaphilosophy of Information,then,describes primarily an attitude or stance,which I have termed the Informational Stance,which requires attention to the informational aspects of complex processes as a methodological necessity.The Informational Stance,in my view,is thus a philosophical stance that is most appropriate for,and above all not separated nor isolated from,the emerging science and philosophy of information itself,for which I show that Logic in Reality is the appropriate logic.My major conclusion is that the BTPI of Wu,his new informational view of the need for unification of critical disciplines and their formulation as a metaphilosophy constitute a major contribution,as yet unrecognized outside China,to the General Theory of Information that is the subject of this Conference.The theories described in this paper may constitute part of a new transdisciplinary paradigm,in which information has a central role.Application of my interpretation of logic together with Wu′s metaphilosophy of information could contribute to resolving critical outstanding issues in the field of information and provide further support for an ethical development of the emerging Information Society.