Conference Stream

Integration of the Philosophy of Information and Information Science

Convenors

Kun Wu, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Xi’an Jiaotong University; Director, ICPI
Joseph Brenner; Corresponding Member, International Center for Transdisciplinary Research, Paris, France; Associate Director, ICPI

Objectives

The on-going development of the Foundations of Information Science (FIS) initiative, which led to the formation of the International Society for Information Studies (IS4IS), has been accompanied by the emergence of the Philosophy of Information, both in Europe and China, as a critical discipline. After the 4th International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science in Beijing in 2010 and the formation of the International Center for the Philosophy of Information by Professor Wu Kun at the Xi’An Jiaotong University in Xi’An, China, a 1st International Conference on the Philosophy of Information (ICPI 2013) was held in Xi’an in October, 2013.

As a first conference, the scope of ICPI 2013 was intentionally broad, but what characterized all the papers was the joint focus on both the scientific and informational as well as the philosophical aspects of the topics discussed. These included personal identity, intelligence science, intrinsic values, time and computation among others. More applied aspects were also not neglected, e.g., machine discovery and patterns in empirical data. Papers by Wolfgang Hofkirchner “a Global Sustainable Information Society – Vision for the Future” and by Pedro Marijuan “Towards a New Way of Thinking In Information Science” exemplified Wu Kun’s overall concept of an informational turn, the philosophization of science and the scientification of philosophy that not only ties the different topics together but points to their necessary positive implications for the information society.

Subjects and scope

Based on the indicated conferences and other developments, the following general themes for the 2nd ICPI 2015 have been selected:

• Philosophy and Science at the Crossroads
• Interaction and Integration between the Science and Philosophy of Information
• Prospects for a Unified Science-Philosophy of Information.

Rationale for the conference themes:

1. The emergence of a completely new world-view, based on the dualistic physical aspects of information, suggests a whole fresh paradigm for both science and philosophy. Both contemporary science and philosophy are confronted with a new development tendency: an informational turn or paradigm.
2. The joint interactive and integrative development of the science and philosophy of information involves a fundamental change in the development of human knowledge: the philosophization of Science and the scientification of Philosophy. This basically entirely new scheme of development of human knowledge differs from contemporary western philosophy in being opposed to an absolute separation between science and philosophy, focusing rather on their integration and mutual interaction.
3. From the viewpoint of this convergence and integration, the Philosophy of Information is a part of the general Science of Information, and the Science of Information can only achieve unity based on general philosophical properties of information. That means that a unified Science of Information is the scientific basis of a general Philosophy of Information, and the Philosophy of Information is the general theoretical premise of a unified Science of Information. We consider the development of the Science of Information and of a general Philosophy of Information as the same process, the two sides of a coin of an integrated development of a new form of contemporary human knowledge. The objective of ICPI 2015 is to contribute to the construction of this new form based on an informational paradigm.

Target groups

Scholars that want to contribute to specific topics as listed in the following:

1. The Interaction between the Science and Philosophy of Information
   • The philosophization of the Science of Information and a scientification of the Philosophy of Information
   • Integration of the Philosophy of Information and Information Science: The Remolding of Science for Philosophy; the Transcendence of Philosophy for Science
2. Metatheoretical Aspects of the Science-Philosophy of Information
   • Information ontology; information epistemology; theory of information evolution; theory of informational value; Informational Thinking
3. The Philosophy of Information and the Frontiers of Contemporary Sciences of Information
   • Computational theory of information; cognitive science; complexity theory of information systems; biological informatics; virtual reality
4. Comparison of Philosophy of Information (PI) and Other Philosophical Concepts
   • The PI and the philosophy of mind; PI and the philosophy of language; PI and phenomenology; PI and post-modern philosophy;
5. Philosophical Issues of the Information Economy and Information Society
   • Information ethics; philosophical issues of virtual reality and network culture; ecological civilization and PI; information production and information productivity
6. Other Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Research in the Philosophy of Information as Related to Specific Sciences

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 27 February 2015
Notification of acceptance: 20 March 2015

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