Jolanta KoszteynCorresponding author and Piotr LenartowiczCorresponding author

On the descriptive terminology of the information transfer between organisms

Article
4 – 1999, pages 165-206
Date of online publication: 30 novembre 2020
Date of publication: 30 novembre 1999

Abstract

Information transfer implies two independent beings (a sender and a receiver) and two distinct, although closely tied levels of reality (the level of a message and the level of its production). In other words the „information transfer" is a multi-layer reality. The investigation of the „causal" mechanisms presupposes a proper description of the phenomenal effects. It is the phenomenal sphere of the directly observable events which provokes - in our mind - the questions driving the effort to explore the „mechanisms". It is absolutely crucial, therefore, to approach the process of description with the sufficiently unbiased means. A premature narrowing on the descriptive level may fatally affect our „explanatory" ideas on the underlying mechanisms. For instance, in the realm of „information theories" there is a deeply rooted, but not too reliable conviction, that the descriptive means, used in the process of the construction and utilization of some technical devices, give us a fair
chance to describe the „Information transfer" within or between the living creatures.

Cite this article

Koszteyn, Jolanta, Lenartowicz, Piotr. "On the descriptive terminology of the information transfer between organisms." Forum Philosophicum 4 (1999): 165–206. doi:10.35765/forphil.1999.0401.9.