CFP: The Monist: What is Information? Shannon-Weaver and Beyond

The Monist, April 2017: What is Information? Shannon-Weaver and Beyond

Advisory Editor: Luciano Floridi, University of Hertfordshire ([email protected]).
Deadline for submissions: April 30, 2016

http://www.themonist.com/calls-for-papers

There is a spectrum of different ways of understanding what information is. These range from quantitative analyses–which treat information in terms of uninterpreted patterns of data–to qualitative analyses, which treat information semantically, as a matter of meaningful structures. What is the relation between these different approaches? Are there invariants underlying the different uses of the term ‘information’ in disciplines such as computer science, economics, genetics, neuroscience, physics, and statistics? Is there some sort of logic, which transcends these different uses? How, for example, are we able to transform quantitative information deriving from meteorological sensors into the sorts of qualitative information that is useful for human decision-making? According to Shannon and Weaver, information refers to the degree of uncertainty present in a message. Does a view along these lines provide a viable starting point for a unified analysis of information, or must we look elsewhere? This issue of The Monist will take questions such as these as a basis for fostering new research in the philosophy of information.

Intending authors are encouraged to make direct contact with the Advisory Editor and to refer to the submission guidelines when preparing their work for submission.