The dissertation is based on four papers that together offer a theory of General Situated Cognition. The project has two overarching goals: (1) to unify existing foundational approaches to cognition by investigating cognition within the framework of the philosophy of information; (2) to characterize the function of cognition and suggest a general (meta-)framework for cognitive architecture. Two of the papers, "Pre-cognitive Semantic Information" and "The Information Medium", deal primarily with the concept of information. They offer a pragmatic and structural account of information, as well as a novel and more general theory of meaning appropriate for simple, non-linguistic organisms - the interface theory of meaning. The papers lay the theoretical and conceptual machinery needed for the other two papers, "The Cognitive Agent: Overcoming Informational Limitations" and "Information Networks: A Meta-architecture for Situated Cognition", which investigate cognition as a general natural phenomenon. They specify the function of cognition as the mechanism in an organism that overcomes informational deficits. They also offer a broad architecture of cognitive systems based on networks of information media, which encompasses, and thus unifies existing approaches to cognition, such as the computational/symbolic approach, the connectionist approach, the dynamicist approach and the ecological embodied approach.

<p>The recent development of the research field of Computing and Philosophy has triggered investigations into the theoretical foundations of computing and information.</p><p>This thesis consists of two parts which are the result of studies in two areas of Philosophy of Computing (PC) and Philosophy of Information (PI) regarding the production of meaning (semantics) and the value system with applications (ethics).</p><p>The first part develops a unified dual-aspect theory of information and computation, in which information is characterized as structure, and computation is the information dynamics. This enables naturalization of epistemology, based on interactive information representation and communication. In the study of systems modeling, meaning, truth and agency are discussed within the framework of the PI/PC unification.</p><p>The second part of the thesis addresses the necessity of ethical judgment in rational agency illustrated by the problem of information privacy and surveillance in the networked society. The value grounds and socio-technological solutions for securing trustworthiness of computing are analyzed. Privacy issues clearly show the need for computing professionals to contribute to understanding of the technological mechanisms of Information and Communication Technology.</p><p>The main original contribution of this thesis is the unified dual-aspect theory of computation/information. Semantics of information is seen as a part of the data-information-knowledge structuring, in which complex structures are self-organized by the computational processing of information. Within the unified model, complexity is a result of computational processes on informational structures. The thesis argues for the necessity of computing beyond the Turing-Church limit, motivated by natural computation, and wider by pancomputationalism and paninformationalism, seen as two complementary views of the same physical reality. Moreover, it follows that pancomputationalism does not depend on the assumption that the physical world on some basic level is digital. Contrary to many believes it is entirely compatible with dual (analogue/digital) quantum-mechanical computing.</p>

The recent development of the research field of Computing and Philosophy has triggered investigations into the theoretical foundations of computing and information. This thesis consists of two parts which are the result of studies in two areas of Philosophy of Computing (PC) and Philosophy of Information (PI) regarding the production of meaning (semantics) and the value system with applications (ethics). The first part develops a unified dual-aspect theory of information and computation, in which information is characterized as structure, and computation is the information dynamics. This enables naturalization of epistemology, based on interactive information representation and communication. In the study of systems modeling, meaning, truth and agency are discussed within the framework of the PI/PC unification. The second part of the thesis addresses the necessity of ethical judgment in rational agency illustrated by the problem of information privacy and surveillance in the networked society. The value grounds and socio-technological solutions for securing trustworthiness of computing are analyzed. Privacy issues clearly show the need for computing professionals to contribute to understanding of the technological mechanisms of Information and Communication Technology. The main original contribution of this thesis is the unified dual-aspect theory of computation/information. Semantics of information is seen as a part of the data-information-knowledge structuring, in which complex structures are self-organized by the computational processing of information. Within the unified model, complexity is a result of computational processes on informational structures. The thesis argues for the necessity of computing beyond the Turing-Church limit, motivated by natural computation, and wider by pancomputationalism and paninformationalism, seen as two complementary views of the same physical reality. Moreover, it follows that pancomputationalism does not depend on the assumption that the physical world on some basic level is digital. Contrary to many believes it is entirely compatible with dual (analogue/digital) quantum-mechanical computing.

This thesis is a contribution to the debate on the implications of quantum information theory for the foundational problems of quantum mechanics. In Part I an attempt is made to shed some light on the nature of information and quantum information theory. It is emphasized that the everyday notion of information is to be firmly distinguished from the technical notions arising in information theory; however it is maintained that in both settings ‘information’ functions as an abstract noun, hence does not refer to a particular or substance. The popular claim ‘Information is Physical’ is assessed and it is argued that this proposition faces a destructive dilemma. Accordingly, the slogan may not be understood as an ontological claim, but at best, as a methodological one. A novel argument is provided against Dretske’s (1981) attempt to base a semantic notion of information on ideas from information theory. The function of various measures of information content for quantum systems is explored and the applicability of the Shannon information in the quantum context maintained against the challenge of Brukner and Zeilinger (2001). The phenomenon of quantum teleportation is then explored as a case study serving to emphasize the value of recognising the logical status of ‘information’ as an abstract noun: it is argued that the conceptual puzzles often associated with this phenomenon result from the familiar error of hypostatizing an abstract noun. The approach of Deutsch and Hayden (2000) to the questions of locality and information flow in entangled quantum systems is assessed. It is suggested that the approach suffers from an equivocation between a conservative and an ontological reading; and the differing implications of each is examined. Some results are presented on the characterization of entanglement in the Deutsch-Hayden formalism. Part I closes with a discussion of some philosophical aspects of quantum computation. In particular, it is argued against Deutsch that the Church-Turing hypothesis is not underwritten by a physical principle, the Turing Principle. Some general morals are drawn concerning the nature of quantum information theory. In Part II, attention turns to the question of the implications of quantum information theory for our understanding of the meaning of the quantum formalism. Following some preliminary remarks, two particular information-theoretic approaches to the foundations of quantum mechanics are assessed in detail. It is argued that Zeilinger’s (1999) Foundational Principle is unsuccessful as a foundational principle for quantum mechanics. The information-theoretic characterization theorem of Clifton, Bub and Halvorson (2003) is assessed more favourably, but the generality of the approach is questioned and it is argued that the implications of the theorem for the traditional foundational problems in quantum mechanics remains obscure.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2016-06-30T17:58:39Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tulio FINAL - Dissertação.pdf: 1494431 bytes, checksum: d90053700bc882607a8c54c546d0eb98 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-30T17:58:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tulio FINAL - Dissertação.pdf: 1494431 bytes, checksum: d90053700bc882607a8c54c546d0eb98 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-27 / CAPES / Investiga, guiado pelos conceitos teórico-metodológicos da Filosofia e da Ciência da Informação, como a Ciência da Informação, sobretudo brasileira, configura a sua pesquisa filosófica e os alicerces para sua construção enquanto Ciência. Adota o termo Filosofia da Informação bem como analisa seu conceito a partir do filósofo Italiano Luciano Floridi, devido ao seu pioneirismo em fomentar e apresentar as teorias para o estudo filosófico da Informação. Diante dessa perspectiva e para uma construção de uma estrutura panorâmica conceitual entre a Filosofia da Informação e a Ciência da Informação, analisa a literatura científica, sobretudo artigos, contidos na Base de Dados Referenciais de Artigos de Periódicos em Ciência da Informação (Brapci), usando os termos “Filosofia da Informação”; “Filosofia da Ciência da Informação” e “Luciano Floridi” para analisar as obras que tratam conceitualmente sobre a Filosofia da Informação, e assim poder identificar como está se configurando seu estudo na literature sobre Ciência da Informação o Brasil. A partir desse levantamento, constitui um corpus sobre os autores e temas relacionados à Filosofia da Informação floridiana, com o objetivo de realizar uma análise sobre os títulos identificados e, posteriormente, analisar as formas de apresentação da Filosofia da Informação no Brasil em suas modalidades de produção e circulação social do objeto. Para isto, identifica e estuda, utilizando a análise de conteúdo, os artigos que tratam da filosofia da informação, com o propósito de contribuir para a identificação do estudo filosófico da informação que emerge no Brasil. / Investigates, guided by theoretical and methodological concepts of Philosophy and Information Science, as the Information Science, particularly Brazil, sets his philosophical research and its foundations for its construction as Science. Adopts the term Information Philosophy and analyzes its concept from the Italian philosopher Luciano Floridi, due to its pioneering promote and present the theories to the philosophical study of Information. Given the perspective and a mounting a conceptualoverview structure of the Information Philosophy and Information Science, analyzes the scientific literature, especially articles contained in the Reference Database Articles Journals in Information Science (Brapci), using the terms "Information Philosophy"; "Information Philosophy of Science" and "Luciano Floridi" them to identify projects that address conceptually on the Philosophy of Information, and thus able to identify how you are setting up your study in Information Science Brazilian. From this survey, is a corpus of authors and topics related to Floridiana Philosophy ofInformation in order to perform an analysis of the identified titles and then examine ways of presenting Philosophy of Informationin Brazil in their method of production andsocial movement of the object. For this, identifies and analyzes within the content analysis, the articles dealing mainly the philosophy of information, in order to contribute to the identification of the philosophical study of information emerging in Brazil.

This dissertation defends the so-called 'agency-approach' to causation, which attempts to ground the causal relation in the cause's role of being a means to bring about its effect. The defence is confined to a conceptual interpretation of this theory, pertaining to the concept of causation as it appears in a causal judgement. However, causal judgements are not seen as limited to specific domains, and they are not exclusively attributed to human agents alone. As a methodological framework to describe the different perspectives of causal judgments, a method taken from the philosophy of information is made use of - the so-called 'method of abstraction'. According to this method, levels of abstraction are devised for the subjective perspective of the acting agent, for the agent as observer during the observation of other agents' actions, and for the agent that judges efficient causation. As a further piece of propaedeutic work, a class of similar (yet not agency-centred) approaches to causation is considered, and their modelling paradigms - Bayesian networks and interventions objectively construed - will be criticised. The dissertation then proceeds to the defence of the agency-approach, the first part of which is a defence against the objection of conceptual circularity, which holds that agency analyses causation in causal terms. While the circularity-objection is rebutted, I rely at that stage on a set of subjective concepts, i.e. concepts that are eligible to the description of the agent's own experience while performing actions. In order to give a further, positive corroboration of the agency-approach, an investigation into the natural origins and constraints of the concept of agency is made in the central chapter six of the dissertation. The thermodynamic account developed in that part affords a third-person perspective on actions, which has as its core element a cybernetic feedback cycle. At that point, the stage is set to analyse the relation between the first- and the third-person perspectives on actions previously assumed. A dual-aspect interpretation of the cybernetic-thermodynamic picture developed in chapter six will be directly applied to the levels of abstraction proposed earlier. The level of abstraction that underpins judgments of efficient causation, the kind of causation seemingly devoid of agency, will appear as a derived scheme produced by and dependent on the concept of agency. This account of efficient causation, the 'objectification of agency', affords the rebuttal of a second objection against the agency-approach, which claims that the approach is inappropriately anthropomorphic. The dissertation concludes with an account of single-case, or token level, causation, and with an examination of the impact of the causal concept on the validity of causal models.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-19T11:49:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 saldanha2012.pdf: 4677694 bytes, checksum: 6e834a187433b345c60f564d966576ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-10 / This research, contextualized in contemporary discussions of epistemology of Information Science, conducts a philosophical study of the field, understood in its historical development as the Organization of Knowledge, from a conceptual reflection marked by elements from the theoretical and methodological rhetoric and philology. As a method, we adopted the "Presentation Overview" model of philosophical exercise taken from philosophy of language, more specifically, the second phase of the Ludwig Wittgenstein`s thought. Taking language as a common element, analysis of these domains of knowledge, the study intended to demonstrate that the Organization of Knowledge, both for its historical characterization remote, as its scientific construction in the modern world from the nineteenth century, and also by their contemporary trends can be recognized as a science of language, and the notion of "grammar" as a structural concept. From this understanding, we can see that the Organization of Knowledge as a field of study that involves, in time, the speeches called "neo documentation", "information science", "documentation", "library", "bibliology" and acts in their daily scientific production with the development of micro-meta-discursive micro-grammar, aimed at the ordination of a language within a communicative context. These microgrammar lead to the development of the concept transgrammars. The transgrammars relate to speeches based on a central point within the experience of a foreign language to its surface, optimizing and leveraging internal commensurability with the outside world. For the Latin prefix trans, which comes to mean "through", "moving beyond", seek to build the notion of a web of rules which seek, from a specific vocabulary, emancipate a given language and build links between it and the other languages in which it communicates. In turn, the notion of grammar is here taken in three senses: descriptive, prescriptive and constructive. While prescriptive, it is by no dogmatic rules, taken as a pragmatic agreements. As descriptive, it occurs when checked family resemblances that allow checking approximate meaning of actions. As creative, it acts as an open system and it is a producer of concepts that set and move the world of men. The possibility of understanding the field from the language allows us to interpret an Information Science recognized under the bias of a symbolic approach, which allows us to another understanding of the idea of materiality in the field studies, the inflection point of the studies neo documentalists. Both notions "document" as "information" is in this sense recognized a second approach which relies on the symbolic construction of reality, where the determinations of meaning are linked to the inter action of individuals. As a result of the research, we look at the need for promotion of philosophical studies and appropriation of concepts that can facilitate the visualization of our practice, experimentation and a combination of concepts aimed at further elucidation of our problems, the opportunities offered by typical methods of Humanities - and not just those of the exact sciences and social sciences applied to understand the philosophical dilemmas of the Organization of Knowledge / Esta pesquisa, contextualizada nas discussões contemporâneas da epistemologia da Ciência da Informação, realiza um estudo filosófico do campo, compreendido em seu desenvolvimento histórico como Organização dos Saberes, a partir de uma reflexão conceitual demarcada pelos elementos teórico-metodológicos oriundos da Retórica e da Filologia. Como método, adotamos a Apresentação Panorâmica , modelo de exercício filosófico retirado da Filosofia da Linguagem, mais especificamente, da segunda fase do pensamento de Ludwig Wittgenstein. Tomando a linguagem como elemento comum de análise destes domínios do conhecimento, a pesquisa se propôs demonstrar que a Organização dos Saberes, tanto pela sua caracterização histórica remota, como pela sua construção científica no mundo moderno a partir do século XIX e, ainda, pelas suas tendências contemporâneas, pode ser reconhecida como uma ciência da linguagem, tendo a noção de gramática como conceito estrutural. A partir desta apreensão, pode-se perceber que a Organização dos Saberes como campo de estudo que envolve, no tempo, os discursos denominados neodocumentação , ciência da informação , documentação , biblioteconomia , bibliologia , e atua em seu cotidiano de produção científica com a elaboração de micro-gramáticas meta-discursivas, voltadas para a ordenação de uma linguagem dentro de um contexto comunicacional. Estas micro-gramáticas nos levam à elaboração da noção transgramáticas. As transgramáticas dizem respeito aos discursos fundados em um ponto central dentro da vivência de uma língua para sua superfície estrangeira, otimizando a comensurabilidade interna e potencializando a comensurabilidade com o mundo exterior. Pelo prefixo latino trans, que vem significar através , movimento para além de , buscamos construir a noção de uma teia de regras que procuram, a partir de um vocabulário específico, emancipar uma dada linguagem e construir elos entre ela e as demais linguagens com as quais se comunica. Por sua vez, a noção de gramática é aqui tomada em três sentidos: descritivo, prescritivo e construtivo. Enquanto prescritiva, ela o é através de regras não dogmáticas, tomadas como acordos pragmáticos. Enquanto descritiva, ela se dá segundo a verificação de semelhanças de família que permitem apresentar as relações aproximadas de significado das ações. Enquanto criativa, ela atua como sistema aberto e é produtora dos conceitos que estabelecem e movem o mundo dos homens. A possibilidade de compreensão do campo a partir da linguagem nos permite a interpretação de uma Ciência da Informação reconhecida sob o viés de um enfoque simbólico, que nos permite uma outra compreensão da ideia de materialidade nos estudos do campo, ponto de inflexão dos estudos neodocumentalistas. Tanto as noções documento como informação são, neste sentido, reconceituadas segundo uma abordagem que se sustenta pela construção simbólica da realidade, onde as determinações do sentido estão atreladas à ação intersubjetiva dos indivíduos. Como resultado da pesquisa, atentamos para a necessidade de fomento dos estudos filosóficos e da apropriação de conceitos que podem facilitar a visualização de nossas práticas; a experimentação e a combinação de conceitos visando uma maior elucidação de nosso problemas; as possibilidades abertas pelos métodos típicos das Humanidades e não apenas aqueles das ciências exatas e das ciências sociais aplicada para a compreensão dos dilemas filosóficos da Organização dos Saberes

This licentiate thesis consist of two separate research papers which concern two tangential topics – that of semantic information and that of information security. Both topics are approached by similar methods, i.e. with a concern about conceptual and definitional issues. In Paper I – concerning the concept of information, and a semantic conception thereof – the conceptual, and definitional, issues focus on one property, that of truthfulness. It is argued – against the veridicality thesis – that semantic information need not be truthful. In Paper II – concerning information security – it is argued that the current leading definitions (so-called ‘CIA’ definitions, which define information as secure if, and only if, the properties of confidentiality, integrity, and availability are retained) suffer from both actual and possible counter-examples, and lack an appropriate conceptual sense. On the basis of this criticism a new kind of definitions is proposed and argued for. / <p>QC 20161220</p> / SECURIT

Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-19T11:50:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 elias2012.pdf: 681074 bytes, checksum: 01f635ac98609139cfb98d87b6c1ab93 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-18 / This work investigates a possible relationship between a will of truth, the information and the archives observing its development through action to document in its genesis. Presents a discussion based on the philosophy of Michel Foucault on the question of truth and meaning of the Archive. Locates the problem with the current discussion on the opening of the archives of the period of the Brazilian Military Regime, where there is a conflict between truth and will of the documentary sources in the custody of the Archives. Includes discussion on the different perspectives on the relationship between truth and use the information to the Information Science, Archival Science and History, disciplines commonly linked to deals with the documentary sources, presenting differences in such areas of knowledge on the validation of information. This dissertation finally concludes that recent studies on a Philosophy of Information based on documentary practices, started by Bernd Frohmann in Information Science, open a possible path of research to enrich the debate on the subject / Este trabalho investiga a possível relação entre uma vontade da verdade, a informação e os arquivos observando seus desdobramentos por meio da ação de documentar em sua gênese. Apresenta a discussão tendo como base o dispositivo filosófico de Michel Foucault sobre a questão da verdade e o significado do Arquivo. Localiza o problema com a discussão atual sobre a abertura dos arquivos do período do Regime Militar Brasileiro, em que se observa o confronto entre a vontade de verdade e as fontes documentais sob custódia dos Arquivos. Inclui no debate as diferentes perspectivas sobre a relação entre a verdade e a informação ao utilizar a Ciência da Informação, Arquivologia e História, disciplinas comumente ligadas à lida com as fontes documentais, apresentando as divergências de tais áreas do conhecimento sobre a validação da informação. Esta dissertação, por fim, conclui que os recentes estudos sobre uma Filosofia da Informação baseada nas práticas documentárias, iniciados por Bernd Frohmann no âmbito da Ciência da Informação, abrem um caminho possível de investigação para o enriquecimento do debate sobre o tema

Submitted by Priscilla Araujo (priscilla@ibict.br) on 2016-08-03T19:52:46Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Miguez, G. Dissertação. Relações entre informação, linguagem e símbolo - versão final.pdf: 1208510 bytes, checksum: d99d9e3e018fde48a75682778439be4e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T19:52:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Miguez, G. Dissertação. Relações entre informação, linguagem e símbolo - versão final.pdf: 1208510 bytes, checksum: d99d9e3e018fde48a75682778439be4e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-30 / Esta dissertação aborda, a partir de uma reflexão filosófica, as relações entre os conceitos de informação, linguagem e símbolo. A pesquisa procurou compreender as margens de aproximação destes conceitos a partir de uma perspectiva que objetiva antever a Ciência da Informação como uma episteme entre a realidade e a idealidade. No desenvolvimento do trabalho buscou-se, por meio de uma hermenêutica aplicada em três abordagens distintas, advindas do pensamento de Ernst Cassirer, Xavier Zubiri e Rafael Capurro, testar duas hipóteses básicas: (1) se a Ciência da Informação pode ser considerada uma Ciência Hermenêutica enquanto subdisciplina da Retórica (tradicional hipótese capurriana) e (2) se a Filosofia da Ciência da Informação pode ser considerada uma Antropologia Filosófica. Para isto, o estudo revisou os aspectos gerais do conceito de informação, estabeleceu-se algumas relações conceituais entre informação, linguagem e símbolo, percorreu os paradigmas epistemológicos (fisicalista, cognitivista e social) e filosóficos (representacionista, emissor-canal-receptor e platônico) identificados por Rafael Capurro, e, discutiu os conceitos centrais da “filosofia das formas simbólicas”, de Ernest Cassirer e da “filosofia da inteligência e da realidade”, de Xavier Zubiri. Ao revisar os conceitos de Cassirer e Zubiri, a reflexão relacionou as possíveis aproximações conceituais para confirmar as hipóteses. O trabalho apresentou como conclusão o argumento de que o paradigma social favorece tanto o desdobramento da Ciência da Informação em uma ciência hermenêutica e da Filosofia da Ciência da Informação em uma antropologia filosófica. Entendeu-se que, num aspecto filosófico, a Ciência da Informação, enquanto ciência hermenêutico-retórica, por um lado se aproxima de Cassirer numa abordagem representacionista, e, por outro, de Zubiri, numa abordagem platônica. O estudo ainda sugeriu algumas direções futuras a serem exploradas: o desenvolvimento de estudos sobre (a) informação e simbólica e (b) a investigação de uma ética informacional a partir de uma antropologia filosófica. / This dissertation addresses, from a philosophical reflection, the relationship between the concepts of information, language and symbol. The research sought to understand the approaching margins of these concepts from a perspective that aimed to predict the Information Science as an episteme between reality and ideality. In the development of this work, it was sought to test, through a hermeneutics applied to three distinct approaches, arising from the thought of Ernst Cassirer, Xavier Zubiri and Rafael Capurro, two basic hypotheses: (1) if the Information Science can be considered a Hermeneutics Science as sub-discipline of Rhetoric (traditional capurrian hypothesis) and (2) if the Information Science Philosophy can be considered a Philosophical Anthropology. For this, the study reviewed the general aspects of the information concept, established some conceptual relationships between information, language and symbol, toured the epistemological paradigms (physicalist, cognitive and social) and philosophical (representationist, emitter-channel-receiver and platonic) identified by Rafael Capurro, and discussed the core concepts of "philosophy of symbolic forms", from Ernest Cassirer, and the "philosophy of intelligence and reality," from Xavier Zubiri. When reviewing the concepts of Cassirer and Zubiri, the reflection aimed to relate the possible conceptual approaches that confirmed the hypotheses. The work presented as a conclusion the argument that the social paradigm favors both the deployment of the Information Science as a hermeneutic science and the Information Science Philosophy as a philosophical anthropology. It was considered, therefore, that in a philosophical aspect, the Information Science, as a hermeneutic-rhetorical science, on the one hand, gets closer to Cassirer in a representationist approach; on the other hand, to Zubiri, in a platonic approach. The study also suggested some future directions to be explored: the development of studies about information and symbolic and the research of an informational ethics from a philosophical anthropology.