Towards a Semantic Theory of Information

Ricardo Pérez-Amat García (University Juan Carlos I, Spain)

Being professor at the University Juan Carlos I (Madrid, Spain), he passed away in November the 14^th 2008. This work was posthumously translated by Prof. B. Al Hadithi and J.M. Díaz Nafría.

Information can be understood as that which reduces uncertainty, no matter what origin it has. In the field of human communication, information is only meaningful if it is part of a finished or intentional action. Meaning should be gathered from the empirical perspective of the use of language.

If we study the processing of signification through transmission of the normal use of language, we will see that it takes place communicating a set of prototype categories, the core or central facts, which defines meaning as empirical hypothesis. But if there are central facts showing the use of words, then other facts –more or less peripheral– should also arise, whose knowledge is necessary in order to communicate in contexts far away from the “denotative conceptual norm”. Hence meaning can be represented by a fuzzy subset of the universe of discourse partition set. This concept of meaning may be integrated in a formal model of semantic source and information may be measured by non-probabilistic entropy.

• Full article published in Triple C, 7(2), special issue What is really information?
• Spanish article published in ¿Qué es información?, 2008

 

Introduction to the special issue “What is really information? An interdisciplinary approach”

José María Díaz Nafría & Francisco Salto Alemany (Universidad de León)

This issue poses the question: what information really is. The reality or way of being of information is called into question. Consider for a moment we were to ask what digestion really is. Digestion might be considered as a complex collection of biochemical processes allowing for many distinct levels of analysis in reality: molecular, atomic, quantum… Let d be a coherent complete description of such processes. Is digestion really d? It seems not, since our particular experience of digestion, our digesting, also seems to be part of what digestion “really” is. Moreover, we may ask whether digestion really occurs only within the organism, or rather there are external social phenomena determining what digestion “really” is. Regarding digestion there are also norms, values, indeed also ethical values, expectations and practices that are also part of what digestion “really” is. Reality is many sided and seems to include, from a manifest viewpoint, facts and also further nonfactual elements.

 

Towards a semantic theory of information

Ricardo PÉREZ-AMAT (Universidad R. Juan Carlos I)

Information can be understood as that which reduces uncertainty, whatever the origin of this. In the field of human communication, information is only meaningful if it is part of an action is finished, intentional. Meaning will be raised from the emprirical perspective of use of language.
If we study processing of signification through transmission of normal use of language, we will see that it take place communicating a set of prototype categories, the medullary or central facts, that defines meaning as empirical hypothesis. But if there are central facts to learn the use of words, also it must exits facts more or less peripheral whitch knowledge is necessary in contexts so far of the “denotative conceptual norm”, so that meaning can be represented by a fuzzy set of universe of discourse set.
This concept of meaning can be integrated in a formal model of semantic source. Information can be measured by a non probabilistic entropy.

Article

 

Weak Consistency and Strong Paraconsistency

Gemma ROBLES (Universidad La Laguna)

In a standard sense, consistency and paraconsistency are understood as, respectively, the absence of any contradiction and as the absence of the ECQ (“E contradictione quodlibet”) rule that allows us to conclude any well formed formula from any contradiction. The aim of this paper is to explain the concepts of weak consistency alternative to the standard one, the concepts of paraconsistency related to them and the concept of strong paraconsisteny, all of which have been defined by the author together with José M. Méndez.

Article