Re: [Fis] Fw: Five Momenta. Five Itineraries

[Loet Leydesdorff]

Self-reference is a key principle in art and humor and it may also be a key
component of the structured coherence in science Pedro and we are seeking.

 

Dear Joseph:

 

Do not count me in to the "we", please. In my opinion, these "unity of
science" principles are outdated. At issue is to specify how the sciences
and specialties are different; in which respects and why? Obviously, the
boundaries are fuzzy, since what may seem far distanced from one perspective
can be nearby from another (e.g. in terms of the metrics used for the
measurement such as in the case of biometrics and econometrics). 

 

These distinctions are not to be identified into a single "self" of the
self-reference, but to be dissolved (differentiated) in discourse. They are
carried by the communication in science & technology studies or more broadly
(since including the science/society interface) in the information sciences.
The "self" is not transcendental to these discourses, but reflexive insofar
as one has the communicative competencies to listen and - if so wished -- to
participate.

 

The distinctions (such as the ones between your five schemes) may be useful
heuristics. The puzzles have then to be specified.

 

Best,

Loet

 

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[Fis] hierarchy

[Stanley N Salthe]

Pedro wrote:

I see but five different and interrelated "momenta" that should be aligned
for the hypothetical advancement of the common info field.  The first one
corresponds to philosophy, as the critical playground where dissatisfaction
with the existing views should conduce to attempting more congenial new
ways of thinking. Unsolved problems of the sciences, when they are general
and affect several disciplines, easily generate philosophical debate--which
can be helpful to suggest new inroads. Saying clearly "nope" to some
philosophical and para-philosophical schools is quite valuable although it
easily generates irritation and obfuscation in the concerned parties (that
ingredient of "piquancy" also enlivens the debates).The second momentum
would correspond to the biomolecular (primordials of life and cellular
organization). The third momentum would wrap around the organismic and the
neuronal (the evolutionary outcomes of multicellular life up to advanced
nervous systems). I think they are so obvious that do not deserve further
comment.The fourth momentum involves the roots of human sociality, up to
the historical development of social complexity. And the fifth momentum
belongs to the contemporary revolution around communication, information,
etc.

Pedro -- What you have here is a rough subsumptive hierarchy.  That is,
each concept to the immediate left of another concept here subsumes that
concept.  So, e.g., sociality subsumes information, while information
constrains sociality.

{philosophy  {biomolecular  {organismic & neuronal  {sociality
{information}


STAN
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