Previous Article in event
Next Article in event
Definition and Essence of Information
Published:
04 July 2010
by MDPI
in The 4th International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science
session FIS 2010
Abstract: It is 60 years since essential attributes of information were explored in the field of philosophy, resulting in contention of a hundred schools of thought and wide division of opinions so far. Some scholars at home and abroad have been trying to build a new system of information philosophy from the angle of ontology so as to explain the world. This paper, however, puts forward a definition of information and its mathematical expressions, and points out that information is the collection of three kinds of attributes of things, which is proved perfect after testing. It is found on analysis that the essence of information people refer to nowadays is just the interaction of matters, and the representation of the law of causality in philosophy. The paper also suggests that information is only a noun that people have customarily used and confused. Eventually, the induction, differentiation and utilization of conventionally-stated information should be applied into studying matters themselves.
Keywords: information, attribute, interaction, causality, Wiener
