An Essay on the History of Philosophy of Information: Port-Royal Logic, Leibniz, and Kant

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  • 情報の哲学史試論 --『ポール・ロワイヤル論理学』・ライプニッツ・カント--
  • ジョウホウ ノ テツガクシ シロン : 『 ポール ・ ロワイヤル ロンリガク 』 ・ ライプニッツ ・ カント

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Abstract

In recent years, a branch of philosophy called the “philosophy of information” has become increasingly prominent due to the rapid development of information technology and AI. This paper rereads early modern thought on logic as a “history of philosophy of information, ” conducting an analysis of various recent concepts of information. In the following, I will focus, among the ideas about logic produced in the early modern period, on those published by Leibniz and Kant (among others), and in Port-Royal Logic by A. Arnauld and P. Nicoll (1662). Of these, Port-Royal Logic is the most influential text of logic produced during the early modern period. In this work, the position known as Aristotelian abstractionism is clearly established, which is considered significant in early modern philosophical and logical thought. In this paper, this position will be discussed in relation to the fields of knowledge representation, ontology, and formal concept analysis in current information science. Leibniz and Kant, who will be discussed next, both partially inherited Aristotelian abstractionism but developed it in two completely different directions. Leibniz developed a theorization of the conceptual structure of Aristotelian abstractionism and, by incorporating the ideas of Descartes and Hobbes, formed an elaborate formal theory. This paper will discuss this point in light of the work of W. Lentzen, which has now become a classic. On the other hand, Kant gave new insights into the connection between Aristotelian abstractionism and the real world. In this paper, this point will be clarified through an analysis of “transcendental logic” found in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781). In this discussion, I will attempt to reinterpret the significance of Kant’s insights while supporting the perspective of the “symbol grounding problem” proposed by Harnad (1990).

Journal

  • 哲學研究

    哲學研究 609 84-104, 2023-02-28

    THE KYOTO PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY (The Kyoto Tetsugaku-Kai)

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