Information as a value concept: Reconciling theory and practice

Library Philosophy and Practice

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 2005, Pages

  Weissinger, Thomas ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 26444539895     PISSN: 15220222     EISSN: 15220222     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. H. Curtis Wright, "The Immateriality of Information," Journal of Library History 11, 4 (October 1976): 297. Both advocates for and against philosophizing about librarianship make
2. reference to Wright's observation. See, for example, Joseph Z. Nitecki's "The Concept of Information-Knowledge Continuum: Implications for Librarianship," Journal of Library History, Philosophy and Comparative Librarianship 20, 4 (Fall 1985): 387-407
3. and Jim Zwaldo's "We Don't Need a Philosophy of Library and Information Science: We're Confused Enough Already," Library Quarterly 67, 2 (April 1997): 103-121.
4. Antony Brewerton, "The Creed of a Librarian: a Review Article," Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 35, 1 (March 2003): 49.
5. Julian Warner, "W(h)ither Information Science?," Library Quarterly 71, 2 (April 2001): 249.
6. Wayne A. Wiegand, "Broadening Our Perspectives," Library Quarterly 73, 1 (January 2003): x.
7. This article introduces a special issue of Library Quarterly responding to an earlier article by Wiegand ["Tunnel Vision and Blind Spots, What the Past Tells Us about the Present; Reflections on the Twentieth-Century History of Librarianship." Library Quarterly 69, 1 (January 1999): 1-32].
8. Rudolph. Stichweh, "Systems Theory as an Alternative to Action Theory? The Rise of 'Communication' as a Theoretical Option," Acta Sociologica 43, 1 (2000): 8;
9. Eva Jablonka, "Information: Its Interpretation, Its Inheritance, and Its Sharing," Philosophy of Science 69, 4 (December 2002): 579-580.
10. Ellen Bonnevie, "Dretske's Semantic Information Theory and Meta-theories in Library and Information Science," Journal of Documentation 57, 4 (July 2001): 520-522.
11. Warner, "W(h)ither Information Science," 244.
12. Ronald E. Day, Modern Invention of Information: Discourse, History, and Power (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001), 39.
13. Thomas Weissinger, "The New Literacy Thesis: Implications for Librarianship," portal-Libraries and the Academy 4, 2 (April 2004): 245-257.
14. P.M.S. Hacker, "Analytic Philosophy: What, Whence, and Whither?" in The Story of Analytic Philosophy: Plot and Heroes, ed. Anat Biletzky and Anat Matar (New York: Routledge, 1998), 28-30.
15. Brewerton, "Creed of the Librarian," 50.
16. Charles R. Martell, "Must It Be?: Concept of Information as a Commodity," Journal of Academic Librarianship 22 (March 1996): 86.
17. Charles R. Martell, "Must It Be?: Concept of Information as a Commodity," Journal of Academic Librarianship 22 (1996): 86, Ibid.
18. Wright, "Immateriality of Information," 298.
19. "Materialism," in Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2000), 535. Materialism is "a set of related theories which hold that all entities and processes are composed of - or are reducible to - matter, material forces or physical processes. .. .In general, the metaphysical theory of materialism entails the denial of the reality of spiritual beings, consciousness and mental or psychic states or processes, as ontologically distinct from, or independent of, material changes of processes."
20. "Idealism," in Dictionary of World Philosophy, ed. Iannone, A. Pablo (New York: Routledge, 2001), 251. "[T]he term idealism denotes a family of doctrines sharing the view that, somehow, reality is not independent of cognizing minds, but exists as a correlate of mental operations. These doctrines sometimes retain not only the epistemological but also the valuational connotation of ideal and idealism, indicating that reality somehow is, shares, or reflects perfection."
21. nd ed., ed. Audi, Robert (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 195. Critical theory is described as "any social theory that is at the same time explanatory, normative, practical, and self-reflexive. ...These requirements contradict the standard account of scientific theories and explanations, particularly positivism and its separation of fact and value. For this reason, the methodological writings of critical theorists often attack positivism and empiricism and attempt to construct alternative epistemologies."
22. Archie L. Dick, "Library and Information Science as a Social Science: Neutral and Normative Conceptions," Library Quarterly 65 (April 1995): 229.
23. nd ed. (New York: Pergamon Press, 1988), 95.
24. Jablonka, "Information: Its Interpretation," 580, 585.
25. There are other ways to account for the multiple uses of the term "information". For instance, one could say that it is only when "information" primarily refers to the content of ideas and concepts shared by human beings that it is used in its primary sense, but when the term describes other things, not related to human thought, it is used as an analogy [Bonnevie, "Dretske's Semantic Information," 521].
26. Jablonka, "Information: Its Interpretation," 582.
27. Buckland, Library Services in Theory, 95.
28. Even though the process of becoming informed theoretically presupposes prior knowledge and suitable cognitive skills, what a person actually thinks is ambiguous at best. Materialist theory could just as easily suppose that information compels one to change or causes an increase in knowledge as to suppose that one uses information to reason and make informed judgments. In truth, however, information does not necessarily compel one's mind to change nor does it necessarily give one reason to think otherwise about a thing. One can be informed and not do anything about it [Jesse H. Shera, The Foundations of Education for Librarianship (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1972), 116].
29. Bonnevie, "Dretske's Semantic Information," 522.
30. Bonnevie, "Dretske's Semantic Information," Ibid., 527.
31. Bonnevie, "Dretske's Semantic Information," Ibid., 526.
32. Dretske's meta-narrative takes a one-sided view of information in terms of its factualness. This theory pays no attention to information as a value concept, supposing only that the relation between intentionality and referent establishes the truth or falsity of propositions [Fred Dretske, Knowledge and the Flow of Information (Oxford: Blackwells, 1981), vii, 45].
33. As Ronald Day would say, the theory avoids the aesthetic nature of information [Day, Modern Invention of Information, 115].
34. H. Curtis Wright, "Shera as a Bridge between Librarianship and Information Science," Journal of Library History 20, 2 (Spring 1985): 145.
35. Wright, "Immateriality of Information," 302.
36. Wright, "Shera as a Bridge," 149;
37. Wright, "Immateriality of Information," 303.
38. Wright, "Immateriality of Information," 309.
39. Wright, "Shera as a Bridge," 146;
40. Wright, "Immateriality of Information," 314, footnote 72.
41. Day, Modern Invention of Information, 38.
42. Day, Modern Invention of Information, Ibid., 40.
43. Day, Modern Invention of Information, Ibid., 52.
44. Day, Modern Invention of Information, Ibid., 54.
45. Day, Modern Invention of Information, Ibid., 31.
46. Day, Modern Invention of Information, Ibid., 56.
47. Day, Modern Invention of Information, Ibid., 57.
48. Buckland, Library Services in Theory, 103;
49. Day, Modern Invention of Information, 54.
50. Buckland, Library Services in Theory, 102.
51. Buckland, Library Services in Theory, Ibid., 131.
52. Jesse H. Shera, The Foundations of Education for Librarianship (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1972), 117, 130.
53. The Foundations of Education for Librarianship, Ibid., 164.
54. Georg Henrik von Wright, The Varieties of Goodness (New York: Humanities Press, 1963), 29.
55. The Varieties of Goodness, Ibid., 19.
56. The Varieties of Goodness, Ibid., 44.
57. The Varieties of Goodness, Ibid., 144.
58. The Varieties of Goodness, Ibid., 150.
59. The Varieties of Goodness, Ibid., 33, 114.
60. The Varieties of Goodness, Ibid., 87.
61. The Varieties of Goodness, Ibid., 96.
62. Shera, Foundations of Education, 112, 114.
63. Warner, "W(h)ither Information Science," 248.
64. Wright, "Immaterialism of Information," 304
65. Brewerton, "Creed of a Librarian," 52
66. Wiegand, "Broadening Our Perspective," vii.
67. Thomas Weissinger, "Competing Models of Librarianship: Do Core Values Make a Difference?," Journal of Academic Librarianship 29, 1 (January 2003): 33-34.
68. Day, Modern Invention of Information, 57.
69. Day, Modern Invention of Information, Ibid., 40.
70. Weissinger, "New Literacy Thesis," 250.
71. Wright, "Immateriality of Information," 302.