Semantic information is a very slippery topic. If we know the relevant codes, we patently have no problems in understanding sentences in natural languages, maps, formulae, road signs or other similar instances of well-formed an meaningful data. And yet, information scientists and philosophers have struggled to determine what exactly semantic information is and what it means for an agent to become informed semantically. In this paper, I shall discuss the “three pillars” of the philosophy of information: Shannon’s communication model, the covariance model and the inverse relationship principle. I shall argue that none of them captures our intuitions about semantic information and “becoming informed”. I shall then outline what I hope might be a more promising strategy.
Luciano Floridi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire, where he holds the Research Chair in Philosophy of Information and the UNESCO Chair in Information and Computer Ethics;and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford, where he directs the philosophy of information ehtics research group, IEG. He is President of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy. In 2009, he was elected Gauss Professor by the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, awarded the Barwise Prize for his work on the philosophy of information by the APA, and elected Fellow of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour. His most recent books are: the Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (CUP, 2010), Information – A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2010) and The Philosophy of Information (OUP, 2011).
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