The Development of Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Information—From Anthropocentrism to Naturalism

Zhensong Wang

doi:10.3390/proceedings47010058

Abstract

The emergence of Floridi’s philosophy of information has been directly pushed by the emergence of classical cognitive science and it attempts to provide us with a computational and representational epistemology and ontology. They share some common points: 1. anthropocentrism on cognition; 2. Cartesianism on knowledge; 3. nativism on semantics; 4. methodology on computationalism–representationalism. However, the development of cognitive science is deviating from Floridi’s philosophy of information, as the core concept of representation has been gradually abandoned in more and more cognitive studies, corresponding to the movement of situated, embodied, embedded and dynamic study in cognitive science. Thus, a new philosophy of information should emerge to accommodate the new development in cognitive science. Moreover, Wu’s PI satisfies the demand of this trend, which I will defend in this article.

Highlights

Floridi believes that the Philosophy of Information is the third turn in philosophy
The first turn came from the development of science before the 17th century, which redirected and narrowed philosophers’ attention from ontology to epistemology
The third turn towards philosophy of information concerns “the nature of its very fabric and essence” [1] (p. 25), which Floridi argues should become a new autonomous domain for philosophical study. He advocates that the concept of information is important and fundamental to other philosophical concepts like being, knowledge, life, meaning, intelligence, etc

Summary

Introduction

Floridi believes that the Philosophy of Information is the third turn in philosophy. The first turn came from the development of science before the 17th century, which redirected and narrowed philosophers’ attention from ontology to epistemology. The growth of information society afterwards led modern philosophy to its second turn, from epistemology to philosophy of language and logic. 25), which Floridi argues should become a new autonomous domain for philosophical study. He advocates that the concept of information is important and fundamental to other philosophical concepts like being, knowledge, life, meaning, intelligence, etc. Everything peeled off from the “philosophical apple” should have become a part of science, and philosophy is exclusively left with information

The Emergence of Philosophy of Information

The Development of Cognitive Science