Notes Towards a Philosophy of Information

Ashley Woodward (Dundee University)

ABSTRACT
This paper outlines a developing project on the philosophy of information. It begins with a comparison of the contrasting approaches to information in the continental and analytic traditions, taking Martin Heidegger as exemplary of the former, and Luciano Floridi of the latter. I argue that the differing approaches can be understood as stemming from deeper differences in the traditions concerning the transcendental, and the respective forms the linguistic turn took in each. The paper then moves on to an examination of the notion of information in the work of French philosopher Gilbert Simondon, arguing that his "ontogenetic" theory acts as a useful corrective to the limitations of the dominant approaches in each tradition. Simondon's approach is limited in turn, however, by a generalisation of signification as characteristic of all forms of information. In order to correct this, I suggest a pragmatic, pluralist model of information through the development of a model sketched by Jean-François Lyotard.