Wittgenstein, Language And Information

by Blair, David

• ISBN13: 9781402041129
• ISBN10: 1402041128
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-24
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

This book is an extension of the discussions presented in Blair's 1990 book Language and Representation in Information Retrieval, which was selected as the "Best Information Science Book of the Year" by the American Society for Information Science (ASIS). That work stated that the Philosophy of Language had the best theory for understanding meaning in language, and within the Philosophy of Language, the work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was found to be most perceptive. The success of that book provided an incentive to look more deeply into Wittgenstein's philosophy of language, and how it can help us to understand how to represent the intellectual content of information. This is what the current title does, and by using this theory it creates a firm foundation for future Information Retrieval research.The work consists of four related parts. Firstly, a brief overview of Wittgenstein's philosophy of language and its relevance to information systems. Secondly, a detailed explanation of Wittgenstein's late philosophy of language and mind. Thirdly, an extended discussion of the relevance of his philosophy to understanding some of the problems inherent in information systems, especially those systems which rely on retrieval based on some representation of the intellectual content of that information. And, fourthly, a series of detailed footnotes which cite the sources of the numerous quotations and provide some discussion of the related issues that the text inspires.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
Part I: Introduction	1	(26)
Why Language?---Why Philosophy?---Why Wittgenstein?	2	(6)
Surveying Wittgenstein's Landscape	8	(19)
Part II: Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Language and Mind	27	(242)
Language and Thought	31	(16)
Benjamin Lee Whorf	34	(9)
Problems With Whorf's Conjecture	38	(5)
Wittgenstein on Language and Thought	43	(4)
Wittgenstein's Methodology	47	(32)
The Analysis of Depth Grammar	47	(32)
Wittgenstein at Work: Philosophical Investigations	58	(8)
``Five Red Apples''	66	(5)
The ``Builder's Language''	71	(8)
Language Games	79	(11)
Language and Categorization	90	(29)
Universals and Particulars: An Old Debate	95	(6)
Wittgenstein's Approach: The Rejection of Strict Nominalism and Realism	101	(4)
Wittgenstein's Categories: Family Resemblances	105	(12)
Wittgenstein's Place in the Nominalist-Realist Debate	117	(2)
Forms of Life	119	(14)
Language Games and Forms of Life	129	(4)
The Big Picture: Philosophy of Language and Metaphor	133	(121)
Language as a Kind of Calculus	134	(5)
The Structure of Language is Like the Dynamic Structure of a Game	139	(1)
Language and Chess	139	(1)
Words are Like Tools and Language Use is Like Tool Use	140	(7)
Language as a City	147	(8)
Language as a Labyrinth	155	(1)
Reality and Myth: The Background of Reality on Which Language is Based is Like a Mythology, and its Structure is Like a Riverbed	155	(6)
The Foundation of Language in Instinctive Behavior	161	(16)
Instinctive Behavior and Forms of Life	175	(2)
Language and Cognition: What Do We Have in Our Heads, and What is it Good for?	177	(77)
Externalism	182	(1)
Psychophysical Parallelism	183	(9)
The Mind and Reality: Mental Models or Scribbled Jottings?	192	(15)
Wittgenstein and Crime: The Breakdown of the Distinction Between Inner and Outer Processes	207	(22)
Wittgenstein and Drama: A Dramatic Theory of Meaning	229	(2)
The Inner and the Outer	231	(4)
Imponderable Evidence (Unwagbare Evidenz)	235	(4)
The Objective Correlative	239	(2)
Imponderable Evidence and Real Life	241	(8)
Conversational Implicatures	249	(5)
Wittgenstein and Behaviorism	254	(15)
Wittgenstein vs. Behaviorism: What is ``Behavior''?	256	(5)
Wittgenstein vs. Behaviorism: Reductionism	261	(1)
Wittgenstein vs. Behaviorism: The Existence of Mental Phenomena	261	(4)
Wittgenstein vs. Behaviorism: Intersubjective Knowledge	265	(1)
Wittgenstein vs. Behaviorism: Logical Behaviorism	265	(2)
Why Wittgenstein is not a Behaviorist: A Summary	267	(2)
Part III: Wittgenstein, Language and Information	269	(90)
Support for Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mind: Robotics and ``Scaffolding''	270	(1)
Where is the Mind?	270	(1)
The Mind: ``Who's in Charge Here?''	271	(1)
Scaffolding	272	(1)
Scaffolding and the Rational Model of Choice	273	(3)
Scaffolding and Computerized Information Systems	276	(1)
The Boundaries of the Mind	276	(2)
Scaffolding and the Role of Language	278	(1)
Mental Models	279	(3)
Externalism and the Philosophy of Language	282	(2)
Why is the ``Mind'' Important for Information Systems?	284	(1)
The Structure of Information Systems	285	(2)
The Fundamental Relationship in Information Systems	287	(2)
The Fundamental Issue of Information Systems: The ``Determinacy of Representation''	289	(2)
``Escalating Uncertainty of Retrieval'': The Problem With Large Systems and Indeterminately Represented Information	291	(3)
The Nature of Representational Indeterminacy in Information Systems	294	(8)
Indeterminacy in Information Systems: An Empirical Study	302	(8)
The ``Determinacy of Sense'': An Old Logical Problem	305	(5)
Description and Discrimination (Either can be Indeterminate)	310	(1)
The Consequences of Indeterminacy in Information Retrieval	311	(1)
Distinction 1: The Type of Query	312	(1)
Distinction 2: The Relationship Between the Formal Query and the Representation of the Satisfactory Answer	312	(1)
Distinction 3: Criterion of Successful Retrieval	313	(1)
Distinction 4: The Speed of Successful Retrieval	314	(1)
Distinction 5: Representing Information: The Effect of Semantic Indeterminacy	315	(2)
Distinction 6: The End-Point of Searching	317	(1)
Distinction 7: Types of Searches	317	(2)
Distinction 8: Scaling up the System	319	(1)
Distinction 9: Management and the Delegation Problem	320	(14)
What Do Inquirers Want?	334	(4)
Information Systems---A Wittgensteinean View	338	(5)
The ``Meaning'' of a Document	339	(1)
What are the ``Diseases of Thinking'' in Information Retrieval?	339	(4)
How Do Computers Influence Information Systems?	343	(3)
Managing the Retrieval of Indeterminate Information Content---Some Practical Consequences	346	(10)
Reducing Indeterminacy in Content Retrieval	347	(2)
Large Content Retrieval Systems vs. Small Content Retrieval Systems	349	(2)
Using Documents Themselves as Instruments of Organization and Indeterminacy Reduction---``Exemplary Documents'' and ``Seed Searching''	351	(4)
Measuring the Effectiveness of Content Retrieval	355	(1)
The STAIRS Evaluation: A Final Look	356	(1)
Summary of the Design Criteria for Large Content-Retrieval Systems	357	(2)
Index	359