Soren Brier

Dept. of Economics and Natural Resources, Rolighedsvej 23, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
E-mail: [email protected], URL: http://www.flec.kvl.dk/personalprofile.asp?id=sbr&p=engelsk

Received: 10 January 2003 / Accepted: 12 February 2003 / Published: 26 June 2003

Abstract: It is argued that a true transdisciplinary information science going from physical information to phenomenological understanding needs a metaphysical framework. Three different kinds of causality are implied: efficient, formal and final. And at least five different levels of existence are needed: 1. The quantum vacuum fields with entangled causation. 2. The physical level with is energy and force-based efficient causation. 3. The informational-chemical level with its formal causation based on pattern fitting. 4. The biological-semiotic level with its non-conscious final causation and 5. The social-linguistic level of self-consciousness with its conscious goal-oriented final causation. To integrate these consistently in an evolutionary theory as emergent levels, neither mechanical determinism nor complexity theory are sufficient because they cannot be a foundation for a theory of lived meaning. C. S. Peirce's triadic semiotic philosophy combined with a cybernetic and systemic view, like N. Luhmann's, could create the framework I call Cybersemiotics.

Keywords: Information Science, Biosemiotics, Cybersemiotics, Theory of Meaning, C. S. Peirce's Philosophy, Theory of Consciousness.