Alan,

I also came upon similar topics about the confusion of meaning and information, which is one of the reasons why I withdrew myself a little. Although, I'm not entirely convinced that everyone is talking about same concept of 'meaning'.

Generally, 'meaning' as I understand it can mean content (in terms of a movie or novel for example), or it can be applied to a human construct. For example, identity of an object (even a information-based object) requires it to be formulated as a human construct. Information theory requires a message to be a human construct whereas it isn't concerned about content. Without a human construct to represent the message, there can be no information theory.

In any case, information theory is mathematics and not philosophy. It has applications to communication systems (etc), but the application to philosophy is what concerns those who wish to say something about our senses and how we understand the world.

What I'm trying to do here is demonstrate that math by itself says nothing about the world. You have to interpret mathematics in terms of philosophy or science in order to make it meaningful to our world. Unfortunately that message isn't getting across here.

Warm regards, Harv

• I don't think I am misunderstanding you. - doctordick - March 26, 2002 - 14:47 UTC
  • Marathon Man (1976) - harvey1 - March 26, 2002 - 15:06 UTC