Mind, Matter, Meaning and Information

Abstract

Abstract:This article aims to show how mind, matter and meaning might be united in one theory using certain concepts of information, building on ideas of empathy and intentionality. The concept of intentionality in philosophy of mind ("aboutness"), which is "the ineliminable mark of the mental" according to Brentano, can be viewed as the relationship between model and object, and empathy can be viewed as a form of mental modelling, so that the inclination to attribute mentality can be identified with the inclination to empathise with the relevant entity. Physical information, a concept quite well established within the discipline of physics, is basically a reconceptualization of material form. Daniel Dennett's concept of the intentional stance allows the development of a concept of "intentional information," a broad term that encompasses mental content and semantic information generally, as encoded within physical information/material form.

When ‘The Difference That Makes a Difference’ Makes a Difference: A Bottom-Up Approach to the Study of Information

“…Information is often presented as if it were quantifiable, for example: According to traditional theories, brain researchers estimate that the human mind takes in 11 million pieces (tokens) of information per second through our five senses but is able to be consciously aware of only 40 of them. [38] Information as a quantifiable concept is a core part of the hard model of information [19], as part of the quasi-physical treatment of information within that model-indeed, Faichney [39] refers to the forms of information which can be quantified as 'physical information'.…”

“…If we say that information causes something, however, there remain questions about whether there is intentionality in the cause and whether the information can be said to have a purpose. For Holwell [16] information serves purposeful action whereas for Faichney [39] there is a distinction between physical information and intentional information, where intentional information is 'information that is about something, whether the referent is real or not, whether or not the information is true'. Intentional information generalises semantic information by removing the veridicality restriction from semantic information (cf.…”

Information as causality: An approach to a general theory of information

“…Other scholars have also realized the necessity and difficulty of considering ‘meaning’ in discussions on information [3, 16]. Such a general theory needs to unify ‘mind’, ‘matter’ and ‘meaning’ in a single framework [22]. These statements are reasonable because the difference between subjective and objective views is whether a cognitive agent is necessary or not for something to be labelled as information.…”

“…Several approaches have attempted to integrate ‘meaning’ into the considerations of information. Some believe that ‘meaning’ is intrinsically linked to information, and information always entails ‘meaning’ [3, 5, 22], while others think that information has no inherent ‘meaning’ and that living beings, especially humans, assign ‘meaning’ to information [24, 25]. Neither of these approaches gives a clear description of how cognitive agents interpret meaning or what meaning is.…”

“…Causality was even explicitly mentioned several times in Losee’s discussion of information. Several scholars have also discussed causality in the universe with respect to information [10, 22, 39]. In these studies, however, the essentiality of the concept ‘causality’ has either been ignored, or not clearly illustrated.…”