Philosophy of Information and “New Revolution of Philosophy” ^†

Abstract

Philosophy of information is the philosophy of the information era, is the essence of the spirit of the information age. It is also a new generalization of the development of contemporary science and philosophy, is the crystallization of integration of philosophy and Science. The quintessence of Philosophy of information is to introduce the concept of information as one of the most basic concepts of philosophy, and its demonstration of the “ontological” status and universal character of information, Furthermore, a complete set of philosophical theories to grasp the world and transform the world. Therefore, “outlook of Philosophy” has been reflected, the field of existence can be redistricted, the basic problems of philosophy are completely expressed, and the ontology of philosophy can be reconstructed. Finally, the research methods of traditional philosophy will be transformed by information methods, it is trying to put the material (quality), energy and information in the theoretical framework of Philosophy of information, seeking the unified information theory.

1. Introduction

Since the second half of the 20th century, the worldwide information technology revolution, the information economy, the information society rise, scientific information science, social information and the overall development and progress of the socialization of information, concentrated and strongly calls for a new era philosophy—the birth of Philosophy of information. Based on the survival circumstances in the information age, the conversion of the realistic context of philosophical research and the prominence of “information” in philosophical research, the extensiveness and universality of “information” penetration eventually led to the information turning of philosophy research.

From the beginning of 1980s, Chinese scholars advocated the establishment of a new era philosophy, philosophy of information, and made a lot of valuable research in information ontology, information epistemology, information value theory, information methodology, etc. Among them, Professor Wu Kun is typical representative. Wu Kun’s research on Philosophy of information not only starts early (in the early 1980s), but also is systematic and comprehensive, is called “the first person of Philosophy of information”. Its famous representative is “a synopsis of philosophical information theory” (1985), “introduction to philosophy of information theory” (1987) and “Philosophy of information—theory, system, method” (2005).

The west is represented by Professor Luciano Floridi, the Oxford philosopher. His representative writings is, “What is the philosophy of information?” (2002) and “The philosophy of information” (2011), It mainly discusses the possibility of information philosophy as an independent research field.

2. The Position of the Meta-Philosophy with Respect to Philosophy of Information is Established by Its General Theory of Existence in the Information World

In the theory of the existence of domain, traditional philosophy has a basic creed: existence = material + spirit. It is based on this creed, Engels defined the relationship between material and spirit as the basic problem of philosophy. However, modern information science and Philosophy of information reveal a world that is different from the material world and the spiritual world, and the spiritual world is the advanced form of information activities. Therefore, the theory of the existence of domain segmentation is necessary to explain: existence = matter + information (including the spirit of the advanced form of information) [1].

If we refer to the existence of the material world directly, then we can refer to the existence of the information world by means of indirect existence. According to this, we can establish a new concept of existence: the world is unified on the basis of matter, matter and information (existence and indirect existence) double existence world. With this new domain segmentation theory and the theory of double existence world, the basic problem of philosophy should be realized corresponding conversion, not only to explain the relationship between material and spirit, but also to explain the relationship between matter and information, information and spirit.

3. The Clearing of Opposites between Material and Consciousness and the Reconstruction of Philosophical Ontology

According to the tradition of western philosophy, there are three parts: god (god, absolute spirit, absolute concept) material and individual consciousness (soul, spirit).With the progress and development of human science, in addition to maintaining the position of god in Christianity, in the field of general philosophy, god has retired and no longer plays. On the surface, the crisis of philosophy after the withdrawal of god is the crisis of philosophical epistemology, that is, the crisis of interpretation of human understanding mechanism, but in essence, the root of this crisis is stuck in philosophical ontology, that is, material and spiritual binary opposition state can not be excluded, god’s withdrawal makes the human spirit can not find its external reasons. Thus, the key to solving philosophical crisis is not to abandon or reject the research of philosophical ontology, but to reconstruct the ontology of philosophy. The task of this new philosophical ontology is how to recover the philosophical ontology of human consciousness after god’s withdrawal. Here, the most practical path is to break the state of opposites between material and consciousness, to describe the relationship between matter and consciousness into a process of interaction and transformation, which requires a bridge between material and consciousness to be able to communicate [2].

This bridge is information. Modern science has also proved that the four basic interactions that sustain the order of the universe are realized through the transfer of the intermediary field. The mediation of the interaction between objects is derived from the interaction of the object itself, which is revealed by modern science, any object can be reflected or radiated energy field through external or internal interaction. Since the corresponding energy field is derived from the object itself, it can use its own properties and structure to represent or display some properties, characteristics and differences of the objects it has. So, it can become the carrier of some relevant information to produce its object. In addition, interaction at all levels can cause changes in the structure and state of both parties, which can become the coded structure of the information generated in interaction or assimilation or alienation. Thus, in the existing nature, the structure of all objects is generated in the long evolution process, which means that all the objects in the world are already generated by the structure coded the relevant information. In this way, all the objects and the whole universe are a double existence, they are both material bodies and information bodies. Based on the existence of the material (direct existence) and information (indirect existence) in the world, we can establish a new philosophical ontology theory—information ontology. According to the view of information ontology, the world (existence) is composed of two fields of matter and information, and between material and consciousness through the intermediary between material transition and transformation. In this way, the relationship between material and consciousness is no longer a simple and pure polarity, but linked by the intermediary of information, from matter to spirit, from spirit to matter can be described as a process of mutual interaction and mutual transformation.

4. The Discovery of the Information World and the Establishment of Philosophy of Information, Not Only Bring about “Ontological Revolution” or “Existential Revolution”, But Also Bring about Radical Change in at Least Ten Aspects of New Epistemology Revolution, Axiology Revolution and Social Development Revolution, etc.

For example, information philosophy has established a kind of information intermediary theory of philosophical epistemology, and has carried on a new interpretation of the process and mechanism of cognition in the construction and virtual of multi-dimensional mediation [3]. The theory of information epistemology holds that the occurrence of human cognition is a complex emergence phenomenon in the synthesis of multidimensional information intermediary, the dimension of participation in this comprehensive information intermediary should include five aspects: the object object through the dimension of the interaction between the information field, the main body physiological structure, the dimension of cognitive structure, the dimension of social practice tools, and the dimension of history. In the realistic activities of the multiple dimensions, it contains the choice of multiple information intermediary, identification, storage, interpretation, monitoring, matching, reconstruction, construction and virtual complex activities. The information intermediary theory of philosophical epistemology can effectively criticize and reveal the partiality and inappropriateness of the simplicity, single-polarization and absoluteness of contemporary western consciousness philosophy. The information intermediary theory of philosophical information theory even means the end of classical phenomenology.

5. Conclusions

Philosophy of Information is not a departmental philosophy, but Philosophy of information is a meta-philosophy or the most philosophy, which is different from all other philosophies [4]. Philosophy of information discusses information as a generalization of the existence form, cognition way, value scale and evolution principle, and From the height of meta-philosophy construct a new information ontology, information epistemology, information production theory, information society theory, information value theory, information methodology, information evolution theory, and so on.

Philosophy of information will promote the profound change of philosophy research methods, the traditional philosophy research method will be reformed by information method, and try to put material (quality), energy and information into the theoretical framework of Philosophy of information, seeking unified information theory (unified theory of information）. Based on the unified information theory, a philosophical method of information theory based on computing technology is developed to explain and solve the traditional and new philosophical problems in information circle (infosphere) and information society. It mainly analyzes, explains and evaluates the essence of information, the dynamics mechanism of information movement and its use, especially the system problems caused in the information environment. At the same time, computing and information technology greatly changed the professional activities such as philosophers research, cooperation and teaching, philosophy research behavior will be the individual and genius philosopher traditional independent research to draw the conclusion of the philosophy research behavior model to add the information technology support of the collective emergence of the professional crowd.