Arquivo para a ‘Information Philosophy’ Categoria
The scent and significance
17
Jul
Like art, scent requires appreciation and sensitivity, but this is longer than meaning, this
tells us Byung-Chul Han: “the world is full of meaning. The gods are only meaningful. ” (Han, 2016, 25). It penetrates into the true meaning of the narrative, of the primitive and contemporary oral: “narrative creates the world from nothing” (p.25), but it is not bound by the image: “the world can read itself as an image” (idem).
Without mentioning them, Han seems to penetrate the rock art, when he unveils the relation: “here all that has meaning is the eternal repetition of the same, the reproduction of the already been, the imperishable truth.
This is how prehistoric man lives in a present that endures. “(HAN, 2016, 26) Han’s cosmogony penetrates the eschatological: “it distinguishes in any way from historical time that promises progress … the eskáton indicates the end of time … the eschatological time admits no action, no project” (HAN, 2016, 27).
It also reveals the deeper meaning of the post-truth, “time will be defactised and at the same time denatured (entnaturalisier)” (page 28), by pointing to it already in the Enlightenment: “the revolution refers to a defaced time.
Free from all being/to be launched, from any natural or theological force, the world, like a steamy colossus, looses itself towards the future, where it hopes to find salvation “(page 29). Citation Robespierre speaking at the constitutional ceremony of 1793: “The progrès de la raison humaine ont préparé cette grande révolution, et c’est à vous que’est spécialement imposé le décision le l’accélérer” (quoted on page 29).
Was the triumph of reason, also comments on the same experience in “The Death of Danton” written by Büchner, when quoting Camille: “The common fixed ideas which pass for being common sense are unbearably boring” (cit. Byung-Chul separates oral time from history by understanding “the mythical which functions as an image,” and sees the history of the Gutenberg galaxy as one that “gives way to information” (p. 30), to give these a definition unpublished: “in reality, the information presents another paradigma”.
“Within it, inhabits another very different temporality. It is a manifestation of atomized time, of a time of points (Punkt-Zeit) “(page 31). I return to the previous page to understand its concept of aroma: “History illuminates … imposes a linear narrative trajectory … has no aroma” (HAN, 2016, 30).
Contrary to Baudrillard’s thesis, “information is not related to history as the always perfect simulation of the original or the origin” (page 31), it will say for this is a new paradigm.
He will say at the end of this chapter that time “rushes, fills itself to balance a lack of the essential Being,” causing “the lack of Being to become even more pervasive” (32).
Why do we need to think?
09
Jul
I dreamed of writing a philosophy book, I will not write it any more, I may make considerations,
such as I shall do here, but upon unexpectedly finding the author Thomas Nagel in: “What does all this mean? An Introduction to Philosophy “in his 5th. edition in portuguese, original en english in 1987 (Oxford University Press) I think he did the trivial: to present fundamental questions in everyday words.
So I’ll just make comments, it’s not a summary, it’s just notes, and maybe it’s interesting to say how I found it, it was even from another work: What’s it like to be a bat? (The Philosophical Review LXXXIII, pp. 435-50, 1974), where it says that this question may make sense, but it does not make sense to ask what it is like to be a toaster, updating to this day what it feels like to be Robot Sophia, people asking this question.
It is not this question that answers directly, but current issues that are in everyday thinking, namely: How we know what it is, what other minds are, the meaning of words, freedom (free will), death and the sense of life.
Philosophy does not seem to deal with this, but only in dialogue with other thinkers, the author explains at the beginning of the book: “Philosophy is different from science and mathematics … it is not based on experimentation or observation, but only on thought . “(p.8).
We all think, it is wrong to think that only philosophers and scientists think, the question of philosophy is; “To question and to understand very common ideas that we use every day without thinking about them” (p.8), and in doing this we are taken “in the wave” wherever it wants to take us, in times of crisis and deep changes this can be fatal .
The author explains, among other things, two questions that I consider essential: “A physicist will ask what atoms are made of or what explains gravity, but a philosopher will ask how we can know that there is anything outside our minds” (p. 9).
This is essential because this is the contemporary idealist question, and idealism is the great philosophy of our time, it is the basis of what is conventionally called modernity.
Nagel, Thomas. What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Simplicity and Wisdom
06
Jul
To simplify is not to reduce concepts or things that are naturally profound, among them, love, 
wisdom and knowledge itself are difficult to be treated in a simple way, and should not be seen with simplicity and little wisdom, but it is possible with life and with very concrete examples of everyday life to show and demonstrate what is human knowing.
But in times of post-truth and book access to the production and diffusion of knowledge, the mistakes of simplism and shallow culture can have devastating effects, which does not mean confusing and unnecessarily complexing what is explained or demonstrated.
Just as the reduced knowledge of a given subject or object of study can and usually leads to reductionism, a term used in scientific terms to say that the reduction of complexity did not explain the phenomenon it was proposed to study, is one of the major causes of cultural impoverishment contemporary, to which the Web is only a “medium” of diffusion.
Studies that lead to a better structuring of knowledge such as Ontologies, Semantic Web and now a new dawn of artificial intelligence, undoubtedly lead to further progress in human thought and scientific knowledge.
It is necessary, it is emphasized to not complicate beyond what is necessary and also not to reduce beyond the possible so that the essence of a phenomenon or object of study is not lost when studying it.
In social terms, it is generally imposed by authority much more by the form than indeed by content, the pomp that has certain knowledge does not necessarily mean the wisdom or depth of knowledge, often change the form by the content.
Thus, if some deity or supreme wisdom were among us, it would scarcely be recognized, as in Christian culture, the biblical passage from Mark 6: 3 reflects: “This man is not the carpenter, son of Mary, brother of James, of Joseph, of Judas and of Simon? Your sisters do not live here with us? “And they were scandalized by him.” Do not be scandalized by simplicity, but precisely by the absence of it among those who arrogate knowledge and wisdom”.
Unity, complexity and simplicity
04
Jul
Apparently irreconcilable, some say that the paradigm of the contemporary world, complexity is
opposed to simplicity, but let us analyze this interpretation of Edgar Morin’s thinking much better by saying “… part of the phenomena, at the same time, complementary, competing and antagonistic , respects the diverse coherences that unite in dialogical and polylogical and, with this, faces the contradiction by several routes.
Thus, it uses the basic concept of a complex self-organized system “(Morin, 2000, p. 387), which refers to the idea of unity as a key notion. This complexity necessitates new strategies and coherent modes of dialogue to penetrate the mysteries, notes Morin: “(…) necessity, in their coherence and their antagonism, nations of order, disorder and organization obliges us to respect complexity physical, biological, human “(Morin 2000, pp. 180-181).
Understanding the complexity of the culture that involves it: juvenilization, cerebralization, Culturalization, which is explained in one of his basic books The lost paradigm and human nature, whose Portuguese edition is 1973.
Although there are other ideas of complexity, Morin says that the word complexity: “pushes us to explore everything and complex thinking is the thought that, armed with principles of order, laws, algorithms, certainties, clear ideas, patrol in the fog the uncertain , the confused, the Unspeakable “(MORIN, 2000, pp. 180-181).
The idea that complexity can not coexist with simplicity is the incomprehension not only of the dialogic, but of the polylogical one that consolidates and unites the two concepts: “to distinguish and make communicate, instead of isolating and disjoining, to recognize the singular traits, original, historical facts of the phenomenon rather than linking them purely and simply to determinations or general laws, to conceiving of multiplicity-unity … “(MORIN, 2000, p.354).
This alternative of unity in diversity is explained by the author using examples in the biological field, which is in practice the exercise of simplicity, where the diversity of nature composes life.
MORIN, E. Ciência com consciência (Science with conscience). Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand, 2000
History of the algorithm
07
May
The idea that we can solve problems by proposing a finite number of 
interactions between several tasks (or commands as they are called in computing languages) for several problems originates in Arithmetic.
Although the machine of Charles Babbage (1791-1871) and George Boole’s (1815-1864) Algebra make a huge contribution to modern computers, most logicians and historians of the birth of the digital world agree that the problem of fact was raised by David Hilbert’s second problem (1962-1943) at a 1900 conference in Paris.
Among 23 problems for mathematics to solve, some recently solved such as Goldbach’s Conjecture (see our post), and others to solve, the second problem was to prove that arithmetic is consistent, free from any internal contradiction.
In the 1930s, two mathematical logicians, Kurt Gödel (1906-75) and Gerhard Gentzen (1909-1945) proved two results that called new attention to the problem proposed, both referring to Hilbert, so in fact, there is the origin of the question, roughly, if an enumerable problem is solved by a finite set of steps.
In fact, Gentzen’s solution was a proof of the consistency of Peano’s axioms, published in 1936, showing that the proof of consistency can be obtained in a system weaker than the Zermelo-Fraenkel theory, used axioms of primitive recursive arithmetic , and is therefore not general proof.
The proof of the inconsistency of arithmetic, called Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem, is more complete and shows that some proof of the consistency of Peano’s axioms can be developed without this arithmetic itself.
This theorem states: if the only acceptable proof procedures are those that can be formalized within arithmetic, then Hilbert’s problem can not be solved, in other more direct form, if the system is complete or consistent.
There are polemics raised about these results, such as Kreisel (1976) who argued that the proofs were syntactic for semantic problems, Detlefsen (1990) who says that the theorem does not prohibit the existence of a proof of consistency, and Dawson (2006) that the proof of consistency is erroneous using the evidence given by Gentzen and Gödel himself in 1958 work.
The controversies aside, Kurt Gödel’s participation in the important Vienna circle in the 1920´s before the war exploded, and the subsequent discussions of his theorem by Alain Turing (1912-1954) and Claude Shannon (1916-2001) underline its importance for the history of algorithms and modern digital computer.
Desconstruction is not destruction
28
Feb
While the lay public thinks of the so-called postmodern malaise; or the non-being of postmodernity, since it only declares non-existences, absences and impossibilities, it is ultimately the recognition that is already in postmodernity, that something must be overcome.
But this new type of nihilism, the misleading and sometimes superficial understanding of deconstruction is not destruction, let alone “the end of history,” since it is always affirming, as in our previous posts, within Anglo-Saxon thought the the connection of deconstruction with literature and the way of reflecting Munslow’s historiographical work.
On the writing of history does not mean that it can not be performed to inform us the reading of Balzac helps to understand revolutionary France and antimonarchic thinking, as well as on the past and the mythical cultures that preceded current ones, part of the structuralist thought helped to understand better what followed the thought of modernity,.
So even in Anglo-Saxon thought deconstruction is a way of reflecting on historiographical work, on the process of transforming evidence and information from history into history, but it is now inevitable the historical questioning, the current work of historians to understand and explain the past through evidence facts, will help build the future.
If there is a clear demand for change, there is a clear need for a change of mentality and thinking about the very way of looking at history, of rereading literature, and especially of pointing out new solid paths to change, understanding deconstruction as destroying culture and favoring the general disinformation is part of the barbarism and not the seed of the ongoing change.
The planetary´s crisis and its origins
28
Nov
Edgar Morin in his book Terra-Pátria explains that the growth of the
planetary place of citizens in modernity, began with the globalization of the globe, which made Cristovão Colombo reach America and Vasco da Gama make the way from the coast of Africa to the Indies, but this was a way of changing the land route through India and China, historically the contempt for “civilized barbarians.”
Morin wrote: “From the beginnings of the planetary age, the themes of the” good savage “and the” natural man “were antidotes, very weak, indeed, to the arrogance and contempt of civilized barbarians. In the eighteenth century, the humanism of the Light attributes to every human being a spirit that is apt to reason and gives it equal rights “(Morin 2003: 26)
The idea that Europe, first London after Paris, and now Germany, would be the most advanced cultures have led to: “Beethoven’s music, Marx’s thought, the message of Victor Hugo and Tolstoy address the whole of humanity. Progress seems to be the great law of human evolution and history “(idem), but did it really involve the globe, or was it a time of colonial wars, then two great wars and still a process of doubtful development.
We leapt up and in the postwar period, confidence re-emerged: “Great hopes for a new world of peace and justice came to fruition with the destruction of Nazism, in oblivion or ignorance that the Red Army was bringing liberation, but another bondage, and that colonialism had resumed its action in Africa and Asia “(Morin, 2003, 32).
Quoting the Gulf War and Kuwait War (1990 and 1991), they have shown that: “The collapse of Eastern totalitarianism will not long hide the problems of economy, society, and civilization in the West, will not reduce the problems of the third (Morin, 2003: 32), showing a line of fracture in the Middle East and the Arab world, the book is a prior one but one can cite the question of the Syria and North Korea, current fractures.
Morin brings to the future now full of problems: “But the truth is that world history has resumed its turbulent march, running to an unknown future, at the same time that it returns to a vanished past” (Morin 2003: 33). calls this phase of democlean: “In 1945, the Hiroshima bomb made the age of planetary iron enter a democran´s phase.” (idem).
It pointed well before the world crisis of returning to nationalism in the elections, that this was already in Morin, he pointed out well before the world crisis of returning to nationalism in the elections, that this was already in Morin: “In a dialogical made world between the forces of cultural, civilizational, psychic, social and political integration and disintegration, the economy itself became increasingly globalized more and became more and more fragile; thus, the economic crisis that arose in 1973 from a shortage of oil goes through several avatars without being really solved.” (Morin, 2003, 34)
Arte ideal, representação e revelação
24
Nov
To see one thing one has to see beyond the apparent, that is, what Rancière
has already called (see in the previous post) of double vision, which means to see two things at the same time, is “not a matter of trompe l’oeil or effects. It is a problem of relations between the surface of the exposition of the forms and the inscription surface of the words” (Ranciere, 2003, p.89) and therefore can not be a play of illusions, or that idealist painting seeks the ideal of forms under immediacy of presence, that style of “dead nature” or “scenes of customs.”
This art which aimed at re-presentation or re-veil-action, we note well the etymology of these words that give them a more correct sense, that is, of renewing the presence and the other, of renewing the veil that covers the image, to see, therefore, it is not the “mediation of the words that configure the regime of the” mediaticisms” of presence.” (Rancière, 2003, p.89).
The imaginary, the playful and the spiritual escaped for a long time, but a revival began again with Kandinski, Henri Matisse and other more contemporary Pablo Picasso, Miró, a classic example was Matisse’s Dance II (in pincture), whose idea of the painting would have arisen from a dance of the roda called “The Sardana” of the south of France, and was commissioned by its Russian patron Sergei Schukin, to be exposed in the Palace of Trubetskoy next to another work of Matisse “The Music”.
The sinuous dance in which the movement is transported to the bodies and legs is intentional to affirm the involvement of the dancers, and this representation in a circle becomes an eternal presentation and the re-enlightenment becomes an unveiling, that is, to remove the veil of what is hidden and therefore the nakedness of the bodies, which the patron Sergei would have disagreed at first, but after seeing the sketch would have changed at the beginning, that is, it is not the nudity but of the signification that has the dance that is the harmonious involvement of the dancers.
The ideal of form becomes forms of ideals, what Matisse himself said to look for in his art: “My sleep is to realize an art of balance, purity and serenity.”
The perfect interaction between these dancers is not an idealism, but the search for interaction between people, peoples and cultures, the dream of Matisse.
There is a time of blindness, not only in the world of culture and as a consequence of art, but also social, political and even religious blindness, what José Saramago describes in his “Blindness Essay” by a driver who suddenly stands blind in a sign, in this the author seeks to remind us “the responsibility of having eyes when others have lost them.”
Art is a wonderful way to make us see and recover the lucidity, serenity and balance that are lacking to this day, while being bold and purposeful.
RANCIÈRE, J. O destino das imagens. Rio de Janeiro: Contraponto, 2003.
Inform before knowing and knowing
07
Nov
In times of cultural crisis, information is abundant and not always true, knowledge
is limited and wisdom is scarce.
Although it is common sense that for knowledge it is necessary to inform, little is known about what is information, and little knowledge time little chance to become wisdom, then overflows the “maxims” (sentences made out of context), self-help (name unfit for self-knowledge) and fundamentalism, misery of philosophy.
There are many possibilities for information, but if we consider it as a present in the life of beings, then a definition refers to the origin of the word in Latin stem (information-) of the nominative (informatio): (delineate or conceive idea) is understood as giving shape or molding in the mind, where it is in-form, being is ontological informationn (see example in Picture).
However, this format is in language, idioms or some form of signs this information already exists, and this relation has a semiotic root given by Beyno-Davies where the multifaceted concept of information is explained in terms of signs and systems of signs- signals.
For him, there are four interdependent levels, or layers of semiotics: programmatic, semantic, syntax, and empirical (or experimental, which I prefer because it is not empiricism).
While Pragmatics is concerned with the purpose of communication, Semantics is concerned with the meaning of a message conveyed in a communicative act (which generates an ontology) and Syntax is concerned with the formalism used to represent a message.
The publication of Shannon-Weaver information in 1948, entitled The Mathematical Theory of Communication is one of the foundations of information theory where information not only has a technical but also a measure of meaning and can be called a signal only.
It was Michael Reddy who observed that ” signs ” of mathematical theory are ‘patterns that can be changed’, in this sense are codes, where the message contained in the sign must express the ability to ‘choose from a set of possible messages’, not having meaning, since it must be “decoded” among the possibilities that exist.
It must have a certain amount of signals to be able to overcome the uncertainty of the transmitted signal, it will be known if the ratio between signal and noise (present in the encoding and transmission of the signal) is relevant and the degree of entropy has not destroyed the transmitted signal.
The theory of communication analyzes the numerical measure of the uncertainty of a result, so it tends to use the concept of information entropy, generally attributed to Claude Shannon.
Knowledge is one where information has already been realized ontologically.
