Abstract
The research programme of the philosophy of information (PI) proposed in 2002 made it an independent area or discipline in philosophical research. The scientific concept of ‘information’ is formally accepted in philosophical inquiry. Hence a new and tool-driven philosophical discipline of PI with its interdisciplinary nature has been established. Philosophy of information is an ‘orientative’ rather than ‘cognitive’ philosophy. When PI is under consideration in the history of Western philosophy, it can be regarded as a shift of large tradition. There are three large traditions at large, known as Platonic, Kantian and Leibniz-Russellian. In the discussion of the position of the possible worlds, we have modal Platonism and modal realism, but both of the theories are made in the framework of Western philosophy. In this essay, it is argued that possible worlds could be seen as worlds in information, which is then an interpretation of modal information theory (MIT). Our interpretation is made on the basis of Leibniz’s lifelong connection with China, a fact often overlooked by the Western philosophers. Possible world theory was influenced by the Neo-Confucianism flourishing since the Song Dynasty of China, the foundation of which is Yijing. It could be argued that Leibniz’s possible world theory was formulated in respect to the impact of the thoughts reflected in Yijing, in that one of the prominent features is the model-theoretic construction of theories. There are two approaches to theory construction, i.e., axiom-theoretic and model-theoretic. The origin of the former is from ancient Greece and the latter from ancient China. And they determined the different features of theoretic structures between the oriental and occidental traditions of science and technology. The tendency of the future development of science and technology is changing from the axiom-theoretic to the model-theoretic orientation, at least the two approaches being complementary each other. To some extent, this means the retrospective of tradition in the turning point of history, and some of the China’s cultural traditions might become the starting points in formulating the future Chinese philosophy of science and technology.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams F (2003). The informational turn in philosophy. Minds and Machines: Philosophy of Information, 13: 471–501
Barwise J, Seligman J (1997). Information Flow—The Logic of Distributed Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 11
Burkholder L, ed (1992). Philosophy and the Computer, Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press
Bynum T W, Moor J H, eds (1998). The Digital Phoenix: How Computers are Changing Philosophy. Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 1
Chen Lai (2000). A Survey of Zhu Xi’s Philosophy. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press
Dong Guangbi (1987). Mathematical Structures of the Hexagrams in Yijing. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press
Dong Guangbi. (2003) Features of China’s traditional science and its contemporary significance. In: Zhu Bokun, ed. Studies in Yijing, No. 7. Beijing: Huaxia Press, 229–236
Dodig-Crnkovic G (2003). Shifting the paradigm of the philosophy of science: The philosophy of iformation and a new Renaissance. Minds and Machines: Philosophy of Information, 13: 471–501
Dyson F (1999). The Sun, the Genome and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Floridi L (2002). What is the philosophy of information? Metaphilosophy, 33(1): 123–145
Floridi L (2003). Two approaches to the philosophy of information. Minds and Machines, 13(4): 459–69
Floridi L, ed (2004). Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information. Oxford, New York: Blackwell
Floridi L (2004). Open problems in the philosophy of information. Metaphilosophy, 35(4): 554–582
Floridi L (2004c). From the philosophy of AI to the philosophy of information. The Philosophers’ Magazine, 28(4): 56–60
Giere R N (1999). Using models to represent reality. In: Magnani L, Nersessian N J, Thagard P, eds. Model-Based Reasoning in Scientific Discovery. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 56
Heidegger M (1978). Metaphysical Foundation of Logic (in English, trans. Heim M). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984, 22
Heim M (1993). The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality (in Chinese, trans. Jin Wulun and Liu Gang). Shanghai: Shanghai Scientific & Technological Education Press, 2000, 83
Hughes E R (1942). The Great Learning and Mean-in-Action. London: Dent, Preface
Kripke S (1982). Naming and Necessity. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
Leibniz G W (1898). Monadology (trans. Latta R). Oxford: Oxford University Press
Lewis C I (1918). A Survey of Symbolic Logic. Berkeley: University of California Press
Liu Gang (tr.) (2002). What is the philosophy of information? World Philosophy (Beijing), 16(4): 73–80
Liu Gang (2002). Context, content and programme of the philosophy of information. Philosophical Trends (Beijing), 9: 17–21
Liu Gang (2003). From the information problems to the philosophy of information. Studies in Dialectics of Nature (Beijing), 19(1): 45–49
Liu Gang (2003). Background shift of science and the philosophy of information. Philosophical Trends (Beijing), 12: 11–14
Liu Gang (2004). Cyberphilosophy and a Possible Foundation for the Future Oriental Philosophy of Techno-science in a Framework of Metaphilosophical Pluralism, A keynote presented at Section 4 Modernization and Intercultural Communication in the Cyberage: A Philosophical Inquiry held at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on afternoon of November 20th, during the 27th General Assembly of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH), International Social Sciences Council (ISSC) and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Meeting on Cultures and the Internet, Beijing November 19–20, 2004
Liu Gang (2004). Philosophy of information: A new paradigm for the philosophy of science and technology. Journal of Dialectics of Nature (Beijing), 26(4): 23–28
Liu Gang (2004). Open problems in the philosophy of information. World Philosophy (Beijing), 5: 101–107
Moor H (1985). What is computer ethics? Metaphilosophy, 16: 266–275
Mu Zongsan (1997). Fourteen Lectures on the Converging of the Oriental and Occidental Philosophies. Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Press, 27
Mungello D E (1977). Leibniz and Confucianism: The Search for Accord. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
Mungello D E (1999). The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800. New York: Rowman & Littlefield
Mungello D E (2000). How important of China in Leibniz’s philosophy. In: Wenchao Li, Poser H, eds. Leibniz and China—An International Symposium in Memory of the 300 Anniversary of the Publication of Novissima Sinica (in Chinese, trans. Wenchao Li, et al). Beijing: Beijing Science Press, 44–65
Mungello D E (2003). European responses to non-European philosophy: China. In: Garber D, Ayers M, eds. The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, Vol. 1: 88
Mungello D E (2004). Book review on Leibniz and China: A commerce of light. In: Perkins F, ed. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Vol. 11
Needham J (1956). Science and Civilization in China, Volume II History of Scientific Thought. Cambridge: The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 496
Needham J (1987). Within the Four Seas: The Dialogue of East and West. London: George AIlen & Unwin Ltd., 61
Poser, H (2000). Leibniz’s Novissima Sinica and the European’s Interest in China. In: Wenchao Li, Poser H, eds. Leibniz and China—An International Symposium in Memory of the 300 Anniversary of the Publication of Novissima Sinica (in Chinese, trans. Wenchao Li, et al). Beijing: Beijing Science Press, 12
Rescher N (1981). Leibniz’s Metaphysics of Nature: A Group of Essays, The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science 18. Dordrecht, Boston, London: Reidel Publishing Company, 56
Ross G M (1984). Leibniz. New York: Oxford University Press, 198
Russell B (1930). Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy. Edinburgh: Neil & Co., Ltd., 159
Russell B (1951). A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Russell B (1955). A History of Western Philosophy: And its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 604, 620
Stegmüller W (1986). Hauptströmmungen der Gegenwartsphilosophie Eine Kritische Einführung, Band II. Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner, 151
Swetz F J, Leibniz (2003). The Yijing, and the religious conversion of the Chinese. Mathematics Magazine, 76(4): 276–291
Wiener N (1948). Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press
Zhang Shiying (2004). Lecture Notes on the New Philosophy. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 523
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, G. Philosophy of information and foundation for the future Chinese philosophy of science and technology. Front. Philos. China 2, 95–114 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11466-007-0006-2
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11466-007-0006-2