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Philosophers
Mortimer Adler Rogers Albritton Alexander of Aphrodisias G.E.M.Anscombe Anselm Thomas Aquinas Aristotle David Armstrong Augustine J.L.Austin A.J.Ayer Alexander Bain Mark Balaguer William Belsham Henri Bergson Isaiah Berlin Bernard Berofsky Susanne Bobzien Emil du Bois-Reymond George Boole Émile Boutroux F.H.Bradley C.D.Broad C.A.Campbell Joseph Keim Campbell Carneades Ernst Cassirer Roderick Chisholm Chrysippus Cicero Randolph Clarke Samuel Clarke Anthony Collins Diodorus Cronus Donald Davidson Democritus Daniel Dennett René Descartes Richard Double Fred Dretske John Earman Laura Waddell Ekstrom Epictetus Epicurus Herbert Feigl John Martin Fischer Owen Flanagan Luciano Floridi Philippa Foot Alfred Fouilleé Harry Frankfurt Richard L. Franklin Michael Frede Carl Ginet Nicholas St. John Green H.Paul Grice Ian Hacking Ishtiyaque Haji Stuart Hampshire W.F.R.Hardie R.M.Hare Georg W.F. Hegel Martin Heidegger R.E.Hobart Thomas Hobbes David Hodgson Shadsworth Hodgson Ted Honderich Pamela Huby David Hume Ferenc Huoranszki William James Lord Kames Robert Kane Immanuel Kant Tomis Kapitan William King Christine Korsgaard Keith Lehrer Gottfried Leibniz Leucippus Michael Levin C.I.Lewis David Lewis Peter Lipton John Locke Michael Lockwood John R. Lucas Lucretius James Martineau Hugh McCann Colin McGinn Michael McKenna Paul E. Meehl Alfred Mele John Stuart Mill Dickinson Miller G.E.Moore Thomas Nagel Friedrich Nietzsche P.H.Nowell-Smith Robert Nozick William of Ockham Timothy O'Connor David F. Pears Charles Sanders Peirce Derk Pereboom Steven Pinker Plato Karl Popper H.A.Prichard Hilary Putnam Willard van Orman Quine Frank Ramsey Ayn Rand Thomas Reid Charles Renouvier Nicholas Rescher C.W.Rietdijk Josiah Royce Bertrand Russell Paul Russell Gilbert Ryle T.M.Scanlon Moritz Schlick Arthur Schopenhauer John Searle Wilfrid Sellars Henry Sidgwick Walter Sinnott-Armstrong J.J.C.Smart Saul Smilansky Michael Smith L. Susan Stebbing George F. Stout Galen Strawson Peter Strawson Eleonore Stump Richard Taylor Kevin Timpe Peter van Inwagen Manuel Vargas John Venn Kadri Vihvelin Voltaire G.H. von Wright David Foster Wallace R. Jay Wallace W.G.Ward Ted Warfield Roy Weatherford Alfred North Whitehead David Widerker David Wiggins Bernard Williams Ludwig Wittgenstein Susan Wolf Scientists Michael Arbib Bernard Baars John S. Bell Charles Bennett Margaret Boden David Bohm Neils Bohr Ludwig Boltzmann Emile Borel Max Born Leon Brillouin Stephen Brush Henry Thomas Buckle Donald Campbell Anthony Cashmore Eric Chaisson Jean-Pierre Changeux Arthur Holly Compton John Conway E. H. Culverwell Charles Darwin Abraham de Moivre Paul Dirac John Eccles Arthur Stanley Eddington Paul Ehrenfest Albert Einstein Richard Feynman Joseph Fourier Michael Gazzaniga GianCarlo Ghirardi Nicolas Gisin Thomas Gold A.O.Gomes Joshua Greene Jacques Hadamard Patrick Haggard Augustin Hamon Sam Harris Martin Heisenberg Werner Heisenberg William Stanley Jevons Pascual Jordan Simon Kochen Stephen Kosslyn Rolf Landauer Alfred Landé Pierre-Simon Laplace David Layzer Benjamin Libet Josef Loschmidt Ernst Mach Henry Margenau James Clerk Maxwell Ernst Mayr Jacques Monod Roger Penrose Steven Pinker Max Planck Henri Poincaré Adolphe Quételet Jerome Rothstein Erwin Schrödinger Claude Shannon Herbert Simon Dean Keith Simonton B. F. Skinner Henry Stapp Antoine Suarez Leo Szilard William Thomson (Kelvin) John von Neumann Daniel Wegner Steven Weinberg Norbert Wiener Eugene Wigner E. O. Wilson Ernst Zermelo |
Introduction
The Information Philosopher has established that quantum mechanics and thermodynamics play a central role in the creation of all things. This finding has enormous implications for philosophy.
Instead of a closed universe that is winding down deterministically from an initial state of high information, we find the universe is open and increasing information indeterministically.
An open indeterministic universe with increasing information suggests three testable philosophical ideas:
All three ideas depend on understanding modern physics, cosmology, biology, and neuroscience.
All three have strong connections to information science. They are contributions to a new information philosophy.
If these ideas are accepted, they could change some well-established philosophical positions. Even more important, they provide a new view of how humanity fits into the universe.
Information philosophy also proposes solutions for a number of philosophical and scientific puzzles, such as the problem of evil, the existential status of universals, and the paradox of Schrödinger's Cat. It also throws considerable light on deriving ought from is, the problem of induction, the idea of progress, and the problem of quantum measurement.
Information philosophy offers a mind model that transcends flawed "brain as computer" models. The brain is not a digital electronic computer, though it has information circuits. It is not a Turing machine of deterministic states. The brain is not a mechanism in the seventeenth-century sense of a time-reversible system obeying Newtonian laws of physics. Time is of the essence in the mind. The arrow of time traces the irreversible development of unique biological individuals with increasing consciousness of self, others, and a nurturing environment.
Information philosophy sees the brain as a magnificent information processing and decision system. It is orders of magnitude more capable than the whole of today's internetworked system of computers and multimedia communications channels - at accumulating actionable knowledge, which is the brain's natural purpose, or telos.
Information philosophy is a systematic philosophy, with a triadic architectonic that would have pleased Kant and Peirce. It is an idealist philosophy, but it is worldly, not other-worldly. Its information super-structures are properly constructed on a material base.
Information philosophy is a radical philosophy. It identifies information as the new root (radix) on which to base language, logic, and science. Although it undercuts language analysis as the main method of philosophizing, information may provide a deeper understanding of how language and more general communications work.
Information philosophy identifies and establishes the existence of the Cosmic Good as constructed information structures. Kant's search for a categorical imperative, for a universal duty, them becomes "Be good. Preserve the Good. Do good unto others. Life is Good." The creative ergodic processes generate emergent phenomena that contain all we need to examine not only Kant's God, Freedom, and Immortality, but also his Platonic dreams of Truth and Goodness, as well as the Enlightenment idea of Progress.
Evil is not merely the absence of Good, but the destruction of ergodic information structures, always fragile in the presence of entropic forces.
Information philosophy explains how humans are free to do good. Just as an individual character becomes good through good works (Karma in the Atman), the Sum of all human good works is seen as the manifestation of a "world soul" or matrix of information (Brahman) which can encode the immortality of each individual.
Information philosophy is a world-historical moment in Hegel's sense of Absolute Spirit, a peak of the meditation in the Nietzsche/Heidegger metaphor, a process philosophy in the Whitehead sense of a return to temporality, and a natural noosphere in Teilhard's image, when the mind realizes and recognizes itself as part of the cosmic ergodic process of information accumulation, as co-creator of the universe.
Man is Free. God is the Good. And you can Know.
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