No communication without manipulation: a causal-deflationary view of information

CRISTIAN LÓPEZ; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019 vol. 73 p. 34 - 43

0039-3681

In this paper, we shall describe a new account ofinformation in communicational contexts, namely, a causal-deflationary one. Our approach draws from Timpson?sdeflationary view and supplies the field of philosophy of information with newtools that will help to clarify the underlying structure of communication:information is an abstract entity that must be involved in a causal link in order to achievecommunication. In light of our account, communication is not merely theexistence of statistical correlations between source and receiver, as usuallyunderstood from a purely formal view. Instead, communication is an asymmetricphenomenon involving causal notions: the destination system must be able to be causally manipulated by intervening onthe source for successful communication. In a nutshell, we shall support thefollowing lemma: no communication without manipulation.