2000
Los siguientes articulos
fueron publicaxdos en The
International Information & Library Review, Volume 32,
Numbers 3-4,
Sept/Dec. 2000 como respuesta a mi conferencia inaugural en EEI21
(The
Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century Symposium,
Memphis, USA,
2000): "Ethical Challenges of
the Information Society in the 21st Century"
Thomas J. Froehlich: Rafael
Capurro and the Challenge of Information Ethics (277-282)
"Media conglomerates and
the
church in earlier times were at the top of a hierarchy that distributed
messages to the masses. In the networked society, such a hierarchy
which is
challenged and may be radically displaced by dialogical media, each
person can
be creator, producer, distributor and receiver of messages. Rather than
a
pyramidal structure for the distribution of media, a horizontal one has
emerged, thanks to the Internet. And for this reason, Professor Capurro
advocates a new science of angeletics, not derived from some supposed
incorporeal beings, but whose roots are related to the messages
(angelía in
Greek) that were conveyed between gods and men (by the poets or god of
messages, Hermes, from which hermeneutics is derived).
Professor Capurro's use
of
angeletics embraces a decidedly secular meaning. Martha Montague Smith,
in her
response to Professor Capurro's paper, embellishes on the theme of the
science
of angeletics, seeing it a historically grounded and a unifying the
disparate information
disciplines. For Capurro, it could act as a productive way for seeing
the
discourse(s) of the information society, not only with regard to the
different
kinds of messages (sociological, esthetic) that are deployed in
systems, but
also with respect to power elites, information moralities and ethical
discourses derived from the message practices of the information
society."
(281-282)
Martha M. Smith: A
Prologue to Angeletics: A Response to Rafael Capurro and Suggestions
for a
Research Agenda (283-289)
"As the science of
messages and
messengers, Angeletics has much appeal. As a term, Angeletics may sound
like an
invitation to study angels and the divine real, a theological endeavor.
That is
not Capurro's intention. Rather, he seeks to focus attention not on the
divine
butr on the human and the approaches that the human sciences, the
social
sciences, might bring to phenomena of message making and message
sharing. Capurro's
interest is to find unifying ways to understand information and its
role in
human life and global society.
[…]
Exploring the cultural
roots in relation to current issues, Capurro
asks if
there is help to be found in the study of the message.
- What
is the relationship between the
message and the messenger?
- Is the
meaning in the medium of the
message?
- Are
content and form separate?
- Can
form and content be separated in
order to understand how knowledge is created, transmitted, and used?
- What
is the relationship between
hermeneutics and Angeletics? Could hermeneutics be said to dealwith the
interpretation of the message or messenger in the aftermath of delivery
and
prior to another transmission?
- What
are the practices of message
creation, dissemination, storage, retrieval, evaluation, and
utilization? How
do these practices shape the interfacing activity?
- Who
are the messengers in these
practices? What are the technologies of messenger practice?
Capurro's insights and
the question
he raises offer a rich agenda for further research.
[…]
For example, Angeletics
can cast new light on the collected wisdom of
traditional
academic disciplines, from established fields of study such as:
- History
- World History as Message,
Great Messengers;
- Language
and Literature -
Etymological Roots of the term Message in All Languages; Message
Mediation in
Literary Genres, Reader Response Criticism and Message Reception;
- Art,
Music, Dance, Film - Messengers
and Imagination;
- Physics,
Chemistry and Biology - DNA
Messengers;
- Engineering/AI
- Robot Messengers;
- Sociology,
Psychology, Political
Science, Economics - The Social, Psychological, etc. Aspects of
Messages and
Messengers.
The new understanding
gained can be
used to build the conceptual foundations of Angeletics. There are
similarities
to the agenda of social epistemology as described in 1967 by Jesse
Shera
(Shera, J. (1967): The sociological foundations of librarianship.
Sarada
Ranganathan lectures, 3. New York. Asia Publishing House) and by Steve
Fuller
in 1988 (Fuller, S. (1988): Social epistemology, Bloomington. Indiana
University Press.), both of whom see the structures and uses of
knowledge and
knowledge transmission a keys to understanding social institutions and
human
life.
While shifting away from
a preocupation with the term "information",
with all its problematic conceptual ambiguities, Angeletics probes the
depths
of another etymological river and its tributaries. Angeletics also
moves in the
direction of studying the processes of message transfer, at the
interface as
well as before and after. It heightens the role of the transaction, the
mediation - the interface, and the mediator - human, print, electronic,
cyberspatial/cyberspacial, bricks and mortal. Angeletics does not
ignore
definition and the value of asking ontological, epistemological, and
theological
questions. The nature of the message and its goal or purpose are
important.
[…]
To go in the direction of
critical theory, other questions might arise.
For
example:
- What
interests do they represent?
- What
determines the content and the
delivery form of the messages?
- Who
receives which messages?
- Who
receives messages first? Last?
- Are
any receivers excluded?
[…]
To stretch a bit beyond
the present discussion into potential uses for
Angeletics in knowledge organization and management. Could it be that
the
agenda for Angeletics might be expanded into specific domain areas,
drawing
from academic, professional, and popular discourse communities and
their
practices of knowledge creation. Are the styles, methods, practices and
content
domains sufficiently different to justify analysis? To plat common
elements and
patterns as well as disticntive characteristics? Could this be another
approach
to building controlled vocabularies for information retrieval and
domain specific
portals to serve particular user communities on the Web? For example,
could
there be American studies angeletics? Business angeletics? Engineering
angeletics? Environmental angeletics? Medical angeletics? Historial
angeletics?
Biblical angeletics? Medieval angeletics? If the goal of abstract
conceptual
analysis is to provide a unifying foundation for life in the real
world, then
angeletics analysis may be the key. We are all creatures of messages
and
messengers ourselves. How can we unite to understand each other and
peacefully
separate to preserve identity, unique communities, and accomplish the
tasks of
life?
Finally, Capurro's
contribution by suggesting Angeletics as a new field of
study challenges scholars to think of other historical and
philosophical
streams that may converge into a better broading understanding for
practicing
the art of living as Digital Cosmopolitans. While specific etymological
traditions can enlighten research, they also should not constrain
contemporary
enquiry. Angeletics, tempting us to explore messengers and messages in
the
realms of art and imagination, may open our eyes to images, sound, and
experiences as well as in our electronic and print texts. Where this
may lead
is the next challenge." (283-289)
2003
Willard McCarthy, Centre for
Computing in the Humanities, King's College
London Humanist
Discussion Group, vol. 17, 469: "information"
Tadashi Takenouchi, Leslie M. Tkach Kawasaki, Toshikazu Iitaka: On Hermeneutics, Angeletics,
and
Information Technology: Questions and Tentative Answers
Tadashi Takenouchi: The
Development of
Hermeneutic Information Science (Ph.D.)
Siehe auch ders.: Hermeneutic Information Studies of Rafael Capurro.
Ethos of
the Information Society and the Development of 'Angeletics'. In: SHISO, 2003,
No. 951,
89-99.
Angelica Walser: Infocalypse now.
Gefährlich und erotisch zugleich ist das Internet. Betrachtungen des
Philosophen Rafael
Capurro über ein antikes Liebespaar im neuen Medium. In: Die
Furche (Wien),
Nr. 33, 14. August 2003, p. 17.
Hans H. Diebner: Operational
Hermeneutics and Communication. In: Hans H. Diebner, Lehan Ramsay
(Eds.):
Hierarchies of Communication. ZKM / Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
2003,
30-57.
"In this paper we make
some
cautious steps towards a cybernetics model for a system of coupled
agends,
i.e., a communication system, and the gain of knowledge. Each agent
per-/re-ceives 'messages' [1] from the environment / medium (15),
whereby the
latter as well as the agents' own actions and locomotion, are to be
optimized
under consideration of the given constraints. In other words, we
formulate a
model of how brains model the world and compute strategies
therewith.
[...]
Terry Winograd and
Fernando Flores pointed in a convincing way towards
a
connection between computer science and hermeneutics [2]. In the
following we
develop on their work bridging the gap between cybernetics and
hermeneutics
(Fig. 1). Our hermeneutic stance has also been fruitfully influenced by
the
works of Ichiro Tsuda, Peter Erdi, and Rafael Capurro [9, 10]
[...]
We feel certain, that the
art of interpretation, specifically the
'hermeneutics
circle' manifests itself also in the methodology of sciences with the
Bayesean
inference principle as a prominent representative. The hermeneutic
circle
describes the evolution of knowledge by anticipating the whole,
experiencing
the part, therewith re-think the whole and so on. Likewise, the
Bayesean
inference principle and other so-called boots-trapping methods are
constructed
so as update given knowledge" (31-32)
--------
(15) Terry Winograd and Fernando
Flores [2]
prefer to use the term medium
to emphasize the fact that the brain and the environment in which it is
embeded are not strictly separable due to Maturana's autopoiesis.
--------
[1]
Rafael Capurro, Angeletics. This issue.
[2] Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores, Understanding Computers and Cognition - A
New Foundation for Design. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 14th edition, 1999.
[9]
Peter Érdy and Ichiro Tsuda. Hermeneutic approach tothe brain:
process versus device? Theoria et
Historia Scientiarum, VI: 307- 321, 2002.
[10] R.
Capurro and B. Hjørland. The concept of
information. In B. Cronin, editor, Annual Review of Information Science and
Technology, volume 37, pages 343-411. Medford, New Jersey, 2003.
2004
Tadashi
Takenouchi: Capurro's Hermeneutic Approach to Information
Ethics: Ethos in the
Information Society and the Development of "Angeletics". In: International Review of
Information
Ethics (IRIE)
2005
Renato Fabiano Matheus: Rafael Capurro e a
filosofia da informação : abordagens, conceitos e
metodologias de pesquisa para a Ciência da
informação (Rafael Capurro and the philosophy of
information: approaches, concepts and research methodologies in
Information Science). In: Perspectivas em
ciência da
informação, ISSN 1413-9936, 2005, vol. 10, No. 2,
140-165 (See also here).
On Tadashi
Takenouchi: Capurro's Hermeneutic Approach to Information
Ethics: Ethos in the Information Society and the Development of
"Angeletics". In: International
Review of Information Ethics (IRIE)
Murilo Cardoso de Castro: Capurro's
hermeneutic approach to information ethics, Tadashi Takenouchi
Chaim Zins: Knowledge Map of
Information Science: Rafael Capurro's Responses to Chaim Zins
2006
Marilda
Lopes Ginez de Lara: Novas relações
entre
Terminologia e
Ciência da Informação na perspectiva de um conceito
contemporâneo da informação (The new relations between Terminology and Information
Science from the approach of a contemporary information concept). In: DataGramaZero 2006
2007
Chaim Zins: Conceptions of
Information Science. In: Journal
of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology 58 (3), 335-350.
2008
Beata Sirowy: Understanding
the Information Society: The Potentials of Phenomenological Approach.
In: Frank
Eckardt (Ed.): Media and Urban Space: understanding,
investigating and approaching mediacity, Berlin: Frank & Timme,
2008, 45-64.
"Although
phenomenology is a philosophical current with a considerable tradition,
it
still proves its pertinence being in the center of interests of many
contemporary thinkers. The influence of phenomenology has not been as
wide-spread as post-structural thought, but what is important –
phenomenological hermeneutics is currently seen as one of possible
conceptual
directions after postmodernism (Madison 1997 & Capurro 2003)." (Sirowy 2008, 49).
--------
Capurro, R. (2003). On Hermeneutics, Angeletics, and Information
Techology. Questions and Tentative Answers. http://www.capurro.de/tsukuba.html
Madison, G.B.(1992). The Hermeneutics of Postmodernity and After. http://www.focusing.org/agm_papers/madison.html
Erich Hamberger, Kurt
Luger (Hrsg.): Transdisziplinäre
Kommunikation. Aktuelle Be-Deutungen des Phänomens Kommunikationim
fächerübergreifenden Dialog. Wien: Österreichischer
Kunst- und Kulturverlag 2008.
"Capurro setzt sich mit
dem Phänomen Kommunikation also aus dem Blickwinkel der
Übermittlung von Botschaften auseinander. Die Aktualität der
Themataik ergibt sich - wie erwähnt - schon allein aus dem
Umstand, dass wir in einer Kultur/Epoche leben, in der wie nie zuvor in
der Menschheitsgeschichte - insbesondere sseit dem rasanten Aufkommen
des Massenmediums Internet - Botschaften ausgetauscht werden. Was
jedoch offenkundig fehlt, ist eine relevante Theorie der Botschaft.
(...)
Capurro spürt also
der Frage nach, welchem (Botschafts-)Medium in welchem
geisteskulturellen Umfeld der Vorzug gegeben wird, aufgrund welcher
Argumente dies geschieht bzw. welche Konsequenzen dies jeweils für
Mitteilung, Information und Verstehen hat. Gerade dieser
geistesgeschichtliche Bogen spannt erst die Frage, welche Botschaft die
aktuelle Massen-Medien-Kultur darstellt bzw. welche Botschaft eine
"Geistesklimazone" wie die individualitätszentrierte Postmoderne
der westlichen Hemisphäre vermittelt, in der keinerlei
allgemeingültige Botschaften mehr als vermittelbar erachtet
werden." (S. 63-64)
F. J. Echeriu: Über
Archen (29. April
2008)
2009
Symposium Von Boten und
Botschaften (ZKM, 2009)
Mohammad Khandan: What is angeletics? Persian translation by Mohammad Khandan. In: Science
Communication. The monthly journal ofIrandoc. Vol. 45,
September-October 2009
2010
