On the Gap between Physical Information and Semantic Information

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  • 人間コミュニケーション・プロセスに関する一考察 : 物理的情報と心的情報との間にある断層について
  • ニンゲン コミュニケーション プロセス ニ カンスル イチコウサツ ブツリテキ

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One could say that so-called systematic approaches to human communication by applying general system theory, cybernetics, information theory, etc., has promoted comprehensive understanding of the matter, although it has not become crystal clear yet. For instance, the term"information"has a diversity of meanings according to which layer of human communication processes is referred to. When it comes to what is essential to human communication, the description becomes abstract, and the language of information science, i.e., of physical science, is unable to cover it completely because of a gap between physical information and semantic information. In this paper, we argue that the properties of each of these two sectors of information should be ascribed to such a dislocation, and we should aim to define the qualitative difference between them. First, the type of information attributed to information science is one that can be represented completely as a material entity or a physical object which has nothing to do with semantic meaning nor interpretation. On the other hand, the type of information which one can regard as signs of human communication has on physical relation between"sign"and"referent", therefore, its linkage should be made in the inner process of the persons concerned, and inevitably this procedure should be a very intimate experience of these persons. Hence, the latter kind of information leads neither directly nor automatically to a definite response, but essentially involves the intermediate steps of cognition. It is the mutual understanding on this level which defines a sign usage in a specific situation that makes interpersonal communication possible. The problem is, as far as human communication signs are concerned, that one can objectify only the sensible aspect of the sign but not the emotional aspect, since there is no clear distinction between the subjective and the objective phases of this aspect. Therefore, the question is, in regard to semantic information, how one discerns objectively the very"private"association of signal, sign and symbol to its referent accomplished by cognition that a priori consists in physical information. In this paper, however, we assert that one could not attain these ends, at least under the present conditions, neither in case of one who externally observes a communication event nor in the case of one who participates simultaneously as a participant. The fact that we communicate on an indefinable basis forms a cleavage between physical information and semantic information, and also grounds why one is not to rely exclusively on the language of physical science as the essential part of human communication.

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