Philosophical aspects of information science

Bibliogr. s. 123-134. Indeks. Strona wydawcy: https://www.wuj.pl

Philosophical questions of various nature have been growing in importance for contemporary information science researchers. The main goal of this book has been not to create or promote a new philosophy for information science but to study the existing one (or ones). First of all, the author intended to identify, analyze and systematize („map”) philosophical assumptions that appear - explicite and implicite - in LIS literature. Secondly, the epistemological and ontological issues - in the context of their influence on information science research - have been examined. As a result, the following problem areas have been found: • methodology and epistemological base, • paradigms, • ontological (metaphysical) foundations, • philosophical aspects of the term „information”, • impact of different philosophers on information science research schools, • fundamental philosophical oppositions (body - mind, material - ideal, objective – subjective, physical - psychical, etc.) set in the core of information science, • philosophical aspects of more specific research (ontologies in knowledge-based expert systems, ostensive model of information needs). The general conclusion is: there are various - sometimes competing or even contradictory - philosophical premises in contemporary information science. These lead to different views on theoretical and practical aims of the discipline.