An acritical philosophy of information : general contribution

Abstract

The project of an acritical philosophy of information is nothing but a defense of the necessity for the philosophical in our cognitive, epistemic, and informational endeavours, and simultaneously a manner of refusing the formalist, criticist or ideological marginalisation of the philosophical. This underlines the fact that there are many things that the disciplinary discourses do not or cannot know, not even when these discourses accumulate into a huge pile of knowledges. This project poses many challenges both to Information Science and to philosophy. Only when Information Science is understood as an interscience that operates in a multifaceted and interconceptual, and even interdiscursive way, as it is suggested here, it will be able to comply with the challenges. In the fulfilment of this task it needs to be accompanied by a philosophical approach that will take it beyond the merely critical and linear approach to scientific work. For this reason an acritical philosophical approach is proposed that will be characterised by multiple, complex and inventive styles of thinking, organised by a compositional rather than an oppositional inspiration. This initiative is carried by the conviction that Information Science will hereby be enabled to make contributions to significant knowledge inventions that may bring about a better world.